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EDITED    BY 

STUART    J.    REID 


WILLIAM    EWART    GLADSTONE 


UNIFORM    WITH    THIS    VOLUME. 


THE  QUEEN'S  PRIME  MINISTERS, 

A   SERIES   OF   POLITICAL    BIOGRAPHIES. 


EDITED   BY 
STUART    J.    REID. 


The  Volumes  %vill  contain  Portraits,  and  will  be  published  at 
periodical  intervals. 

THE  EARL   OF   BEACONSFIELD,  K.G.     By  J.  A. 

Froude,  D.  C.  L.  {Ready.) 

VISCOUNT    MELBOURNE.      By   Henry   Dunckley, 

LL.D.     ('Verax.')     {Ready.) 
SIR  ROBERT  PEEL.    By  Justin  McCarthy, M. P. (A-^^^/j'.) 

THE   RIGHT   HON.  W.  E.  GLADSTONE,  M.P.    By 

G.  W.  E.  Russell. 

VISCOUNT  PALMERSTON.    By  the  Marquis  of  Lorne, 
K.T. 

EARL  RUSSELL.     By  Stuart  J.  Reid. 

THE  EARL  OF  ABERDEEN.    By  Sir  Arthur  Gordon, 
G.C.M.G.  &c. 

THE  EARL   OF  DERBY.     By  George  Saintsbury. 

THE  MARQUIS  OF  SALISBURY,    By  H.  D.  Traill, 
D.C.L. 


HARPER    &    BROTHERS,   Publishers, 

Franklin  Square,  New  York. 


<_^W«-  a^i-    ay?t/ui/j/i4^i£tyi /u7'i/'tnif  ^^S/i^n- /.'i/^Jt'^'A^u/t^ifii::^/!^!/ 


THE    RIGHT    HONOURABLE 

.  WILLIAM  EWART  GLADSTONE 


BY 

GEORGE   W.  E.  RUSSELL 


'His  brows,  black  yet,  and  white  unfallen  hair 
Set  in  strange  frame  tlie  face  of  his  despair; 
And  I  despised  not,  nor  can  God  despise, 
The  silent  splendid  anger  of  his  eyes, 
A  hundred  years  of  search  for  flying  Truth 
Had  left  them  glowing  with  no  gleam  of  youth  ; 
A  hundred  years  of  vast  and  vain  desire 
Had  lit  and  filled  them  with  consuming  fire; 
Therethrough  I  saw  his  fierce  eternal  soul 
Gaze  from  beneath  that  argent  aureole' 

FREDERIC  W.  H.  MYERS 


NEW    YORK 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS,   FRANKLIN    SQUARE 

1891 


Copyright,  1891,  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 


PREFATORY    NOTE 

C"  

n 

Li 

7   The  task  of  writing  this  Biography  is  one  for  which  I  should 
^  certainly  not  have  volunteered.   When  Mr.  Stuart  Reid  pro- 
^  posed  it  to  me,  I  undertook  it  with  reluctance.     I  pointed 
^  out  that  this  was  one  of  the  cases  where  personal  acquaint- 
t  ance  with  the  subject  of  the  book  was  a  positive  disqualifi- 
C  cation  for  the  work.     I  could  not  consent  to  embellish  my 
pages  with  traits  and  incidents  which  I  had  observed  in  the 
in  sacred  intercourse  of  social  life ;  and  the  official  relation  in 
^  which  I  had  stood  to  Mr.  Gladstone  made  it  difficult  for 
me  to  sit  in  judgment  on  his  public  acts.    These  objections 
"^  were  overruled  ;  but  it  is  right  to  state  that  Mr.  Gladstone 
o  is  in  no  way  or  degree  responsible  for  what  I  have  written. 
When,  before  undertaking  the  work,  I  applied  to  him  for 
his  sanction,  he  said  that  he  would  put  no  obstacles  in  the 
^  way ;  and  there  his  connexion  with  the  matter  ends. 
a:;         This  book  aims  at  little  more  than  a  clear  statement 
of  facts  chronologically  arranged.     The  successive  events 
of  a  great  man's  life,  and  his  own  recorded  words,  have 
been  allowed  to  speak  for  themselves  ;  and,  where  comment 
was  required,  it  has  been  sought  in  the  writings  of  con- 
temporary observers.     Original  criticism  has  been  used  as 
sparingly  as  possible. 

The  space  at  my  disposal  being  strictly  limited,  I  have 
touched  lightly  on  those  later  events  of  Mr.  Gladstone's 


viii  MR.  GLADSTONE 

career  which  are  within  general  recollection,  and  I  have 
bestowed  more  detailed  attention  on  the  early  stages,  which 
are  now,  to  most  people,  either  unknown  or  forgotten. 

The  books  which  I  have  consulted  are  too  numerous 
to  be  specified :  but  I  am  under  peculiar  obligation  to  Mr. 
Barnett  Smith's  painstaking  and  accurate  'Life  of  the 
Right  Hon.  William  Ewart  Gladstone ' ;  to  Mr.  Justin 
McCarthy's  '  History  of  our  Own  Times ' ;  to  '  The  Life 
of  Bishop  Wilberforce ' ;  and  to  the  '  Memoirs  of  James 
Robert  Hope-Scott.' 

My  special  thanks  are  due  to  his  Eminence  Cardinal 
Manning ;  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells ;  the  Lord 
Bishop  of  St.  Andrev/s  ;  Lord  Napier  and  Ettrick ;  the 
Very  Rev.  the  Dean  of  Christ  Church ;  the  Venerable 
Archdeacon  Denison  ;  the  RightHon.  Sir  Thomas  Acland, 
Bart. ;  Mr.  Arthur  Godley,  C.B. ;  ]\Ir.  Milnes-Gaskell, 
M.P. ;  Mr.  E.  Hamilton,  of  Charters ;  Mr.  F.  Cornish,  of 
Eton ;  and  Mr.  W.  Cory ;  who  have  helped  me  with  in- 
valuable recollections,  or  have  given  me  access  to  interest- 
ing records. 

To  this  list  must  be  added,  with  regretful  respect,  the 
name  of  the  late  Dean  of  St.  Paul's. 

For  the  admirable  portrait  which  forms  the  frontispiece 
I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Rupert  Potter,  whose 
skill  in  photography  requires  no  praise  from  me. 

Here  and  there  I  have  borrowed  from  previous  writings 
of  my  own  ;  and  I  have  done  so  on  the  ground  that,  when 
a  writer  has  carefully  chosen  certain  words  to  express  his 
meaning,  he  can  seldom  alter  them  with  advantage. 

G.  W.  E.  R. 

April  II,  1891. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    I 

PAGE 

Birth,  parentage,  and  education i 


CHAPTER   II 
Enters  Parliament — Early  speeches — Office — Opposition      .         .     26 

CHAPTER   III 

Religious  opinions  —  Book  on  Church  and  State  —  Marriage — 
Becomes  Vice-President  of  the  Board  of  Trade — Admitted  to 
the  Cabinet — Resigns     ........     53 

CHAPTER   IV 

Free  Trade — The  Repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws — Retires  from  the  rep- 
resentation of  Newark — Returned  for  the  University  of  Oxford 
— Growth  and  transition — Loss  of  a  child — The  Gorham  judg- 
ment— Secession  of  friends     .......     79 


X  MR.   GLADSTONE 


CHAPTER  V 

PAGE 

Don  Pacifico  —  Civis  Romanus  —  The  Neapolitan  prisons  —  The 
Papal  aggression — Triumph  over  Mr.  Disraeli — The  Coalition 
Government — Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer — First  Budget      .   102 


CHAPTER    VI 

The  Crimean  War — Resignation — Ecclesiastical  troubles — A  free 
lance — The  '  Arrow ' — The  Divorce  Bill — Opposition  to  Lord 
Palmerston — Declines  to  join  Tory  Government — Lord  High 
Commissioner  to  the  Ionian  Islands — Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer in  Whig  Government — The  French  Treaty  and  the 
PaperDuties — Conflict  with  the  House  of  Lords — Opinion  on 
the  American  War  .         .  .         .         .         .         .124 


CHAPTER    VII 

Growth  in  Liberal  principles — The  General  Election  of  1865 — De- 
feated at  Oxford — Returned  for  South  Lancashire — The  Death 
of  Lord  Palmerston — Leader  of  the  House  of  Commons — The 
Reform  Bill — The  Cave  of  Adullam — Defeat  and  resignation  .   156 


CHAPTER   VIII 

The  Tory  Reform  Bill — Liberal  mutiny — Triumphant  Opposition 
— Proposes  to  disestablish  the  Irish  Church — The  General 
Election  of  1868  —  Defeated  in  South-west  Lancashire — Re- 
turned for  Greenwich — Liberal  majority — Prime  Minister — 
The  Disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church       ....    190 

CHAPTER   IX 

The  Irish  Land  Act — The  abolition  of  Purchase — The  'Alabama ' 
claims — DisafTection  at  Greenwich — Waning  popularity — Dis- 
solution— Defeat — Resignation — Retirement  from  leadership — 
Theological  controversy  ,         .         .         .         .         .         .212 


CONTENTS  xi 


CHAPTER   X 

PAGE 

The  Eastern  Question — The  Midlothian  campaign — The  General 
Election  of  1880 — Liberal  triumph — Prime  Minister  a  second 
time  —  Ireland  and  Egypt — Defeat  and  resignation  —  The 
General  Election  of  1S85 — Home  Rule — Prime  Minister  a  third 
time — The  Home  Rule  Bill  defeated — The  General  Election  of 
1886 — Resignation — Leadership  of  Opposition — Golden  wed- 
ding— Life  at  Hawarden         .......   243 


CHAPTER    XI 

Analysis  of  Character — Religiousness — Attitude  towards  Noncon- 
formity— Love  of  Power — Political  courage — Conservative  in- 
stincts— Love  of  beauty — Literary  tastes — Mastery  of  finance — 
Business-like  aptitude — Temper — Courtesy — Attractiveness  in 
private  life     ..........   265 

Index ,        .  283 


MR.  GLADSTONE 


CHAPTER  I 

Birth,  parentage,  and  education. 

William  Ewart  Gladstone  was  born  on  December  29, 
1809.  His  birthplace  was  No.  62  Rodney  Street,  Liver- 
pool ;  but  for  his  ancestry  we  must  look  farther  north  than 
Lancashire. 

The  parish  of  Libberton  lies  near  the  town  of  Biggar, 
in  the  upper  ward  of  Lanarkshire,  and  here,  from  very 
early  times,  a  family  of  Gledstanes  owned  a  property  from 
which  they  took  their  name.  They  were  Gledstanes  of 
Gledstanes,  or,  in  Scottish  phrase,  Gledstanes  of  that  ilk. 
The  derivation  of  the  name  is  obvious  enough  to  anyone 
who  has  seen  the  spot.  Gled  is  a  hawk,  and  that  fierce  and 
beautiful  bird  would  have  found  its  natural  home  among 
the  stanes,  or  rocks,  of  the  craggy  moorlands  which  surround 
the  fortalice  of  Gledstanes.  As  far  back  as  1296,  Herbert 
de  Gledestane  figures  in  the  Ragman  Roll  as  one  of  the 
lairds  who  swore  fealty  to  Edward  I.  His  descendants  for 
generations  held  knightly  rank,  and  bore  their  part  in  the 
adventurous  life  of  the  Border.     As  years  went  on  their 


2  MR.  GLADSTONE 

estates  dwindled,  and  their  social  standing  underwent  a 
change.  By  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 
estate  of  Gledstanes  was  sold.  The  adjacent  property  of 
Arthurshiel  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  family  for  nearly 
a  hundred  years  longer.  Then  the  son  of  the  last  Gled- 
stanes of  Arthurshiel  removed  to  the  neighbouring  town  of 
Biggar,  and  opened  the  business  of  a  maltster  there. 

His  grandson,  Thomas  Gladstones  (for  so  the  name  was 
modified),  became  a  corn-merchant  at  Leith.  It  chanced 
that,  in  pursuit  of  his  business,  this  Mr.  Thomas  Gladstones 
had  occasion  to  sell  a  cargo  of  grain  which  had  arrived  at 
Liverpool,  and  he  sent  his  eldest  son,  John,  to  transact  the 
sale  at  the  port.  John  Gladstone's  energy  and  aptitude 
attracted  the  favourable  notice  of  a  leading  corn-merchant 
of  Liverpool,  on  whose  recommendation  the  young  man 
settled  in  that  city.  He  began  his  commercial  career  as  a 
clerk  in  his  patron's  house.  He  lived  to  become  one  of  the 
merchant-princes  of  Liverpool,  a  baronet,  and  a  member  of 
Parliament.  He  died  in  185 1,  at  the  age  of  eighty-seven. 
He  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  unbending  will,  of  inex- 
haustible energy,  of  absolute  self-reliance ;  a  stern,  strong, 
imperious  nature,  pre-eminent  in  all  those  qualities  which 
overcome  obstacles,  conquer  fortune,  and  command  the 
respect  of  the  world. 

Sir  John  Gladstone  was  a  pure  Scotchman,  a  Lowlander 
by  birth  and  descent.  He  married  Anne,  daughter  of  An- 
drew Robertson,  of  Stornoway,  sometime  Provost  of  Ding- 
wall. Provost  Robertson  belonged  to  the  Clan  Donachie, 
and  by  this  marriage  the  robust  and  business-like  qualities 
of  the  Lowlander  were  blended  with  the  poetic  imagina- 
tion, the  sensibility  and  fire  of  the  Gael.  John  and  Anne 
Gladstone  had  six  children.     The  third  son  —  William 


THE   STATE   OF   ENGLAND  3 

EwART — was  named  after  a  merchant  of  Liverpool,  who 
was  his  father's  friend. 

He  was  born  at  a  critical  moment  in  the  fortunes  of 
England  and  of  Europe.  Abroad,  the  greatest  genius  that 
the  world  has  ever  seen  was  wading  through  slaughter  to 
a  universal  throne,  and  no  effectual  resistance  had  as  yet 
been  offered  to  a  progress  which  menaced  the  liberty  of 
Europe  and  the  existence  of  its  States.  At  home,  a  crazy 
king  and  a  profligate  heir-apparent  presided  over  a  social 
system  in  which  all  civil  evils  were  harmoniously  combined. 
A  despotic  Administration  was  supported  by  a  parliamen- 
tary representation  as  corrupt  as  illusory ;  a  Church,  in 
which  spiritual  religion  was  all  but  extinct,  had  sold  her- 
self as  a  bondslave  to  the  governing  classes.  Rank  and 
wealth  and  territorial  ascendency  were  divorced  from  pub- 
lic duty,  and  even  learning  had  become  the  handmaid  of 
tyranny.  The  sacred  name  of  justice  was  prostituted  to 
sanction  a  system  of  legal  murder.  Commercial  enterprise 
was  paralyzed  by  prohibitive  legislation  ;  public  credit  was 
shaken  to  its  base  ;  the  prime  necessaries  of  life  were  ruin- 
ously dear.  The  pangs  of  poverty  were  aggravated  by  the 
concurrent  evils  of  war  and  famine,  and  the  common  peo- 
ple, fast  bound  in  misery  and  iron,  were  powerless  to  make 
their  sufferings  known  or  to  seek  redress,  except  by  the 
desperate  methods  of  conspiracy  and  insurrection.  None 
of  the  elements  of  revolution  were  wanting,  and  the  fates 
seemed  to  be  hurrying  England  to  the  brink  of  a  civil  ca- 
tastrophe. The  general  sense  of  insecurity  and  apprehen- 
sion, inseparable  from  such  a  condition  of  affairs,  produced 
its  effect  upon  even  the  robustest  minds. 

Sir  John  Gladstone  was  not  a  likely  victim  of  panic, 
but  he  was  a  man  with  a  large  stake  in  the  country,  the 


4  MR.  GLADSTONE 

more  precious  because  acquired  by  his  own  exertion :  he 
beUeved  that  the  safeguards  of  property  and  order  were 
imperilled  by  foreign  arms  and  domestic  sedition  ;  and  he 
had  seen  with  indignation  and  disgust  the  excesses  of  a 
factious  Whiggery  which  was  not  ashamed  to  exult  in  the 
triumph  of  the  French  over  the  English  Government.  Un- 
der the  pressure  of  these  influences,  Sir  John  Gladstone 
gradually  separated  himself  from  the  Whigs,  with  whom  in 
earlier  life  he  had  acted,  and  became  a  close  ally  of  Mr. 
Canning,  whose  return  for  Liverpool  he  actively  promoted. 
A  deep  and  lasting  friendship  grew  up  between  the  states- 
man-adventurer and  his  merchant-ally.  The  fascination  of 
genius  exercised  its  inevitable  spell,  and  the  enlightened 
and  gracious  Toryism  which  Mr.  Canning  taught  became 
his  friend's  political  gospel. 

Sir  John  Gladstone  was  a  man  whose  opinions  could 
hardly  fail  to  produce  their  effect  upon  those  with  whom  he 
lived,  and  over  whom  he  exercised  a  patriarchal  authority. 
In  the  penetrating  gaze,  the  strongly-marked  features,  the 
compressed  and  resolute  mouth,  which  the  skilful  brush  of 
the  ill-fated  William  Bradley  has  perpetuated,  it  is  easy  to 
read  the  signs  of  a  temper  which  brooked  no  resistance. 
In  the  town  of  Liverpool  his  political  influence,  backed  by 
his  wealth  and  station,  was  widely  felt,  and  in  his  own  home 
it  probably  was  irresistible.  His  son  has  thus  described 
him : 

'  His  eye  was  not  dim  nor  his  natural  force  abated  ;  he 
was  full  of  bodily  and  mental  vigour;  "  whatsoever  his  hand 
found  to  do,  he  did  it  with  his  might ;''  he  could  not  under- 
stand or  tolerate  those  who,  perceiving  an  object  to  be  good, 
did  not  at  once  and  actively  pursue  it ;  and  with  all  this 
energy  he  joined  a  corresponding  warmth  and,  so  to  speak, 


SIR   JOHN   GLADSTONE  5 

eagerness  of  affection,  a  keen  appreciation  of  humour,  in 
which  he  found  a  rest,  and  an  indescribable  frankness  and 
simplicity  of  character,  which,  crowning  his  other  qualities, 
made  him,  I  think  (and  I  strive  to  think  impartially),  nearly 
or  quite  the  most  interesting  old  man  I  have  ever  known.' 

It  was  his  habit  to  discuss  all  manner  of  questions  with 
his  children,  and  an  eye-witness  has  observed  that  '  noth- 
ing was  ever  taken  for  granted  between  him  and  his  sons. 
A  succession  of  arguments  on  great  topics  and  small  topics 
alike — arguments  conducted  with  perfect  good  humour,  but 
also  with  the  most  implacable  logic — formed  the  staple  of 
the  family  conversation.  The  children  and  their  parents 
argued  upon  everything.  .  .  ,  They  would  debate  as  to 
whether  the  trout  should  be  boiled  or  broiled,  whether  a 
window  should  be  opened,  and  whether  it  was  likely  to  be 
fine  or  wet  next  day.  It  w'as  all  perfectly  good-humoured, 
but  curious  to  a  stranger  because  of  the  evident  care  which 
all  the  disputants  took  to  advance  no  proposition,  even  as 
to  the  prospect  of  rain,  rashly.' 

Sir  John  Gladstone's  house  was,  by  all  accounts,  a  home 
pre-eminently  calculated  to  mould  the  thoughts  and  direct 
the  course  of  an  intelligent  and  receptive  nature.  There 
was  the  father's  masterful  will  and  keen  perception,  the 
sweetness  and  piety  of  the  mother,  wealth  with  all  its  sub- 
stantial advantages  and  few  of  its  mischiefs,  a  strong  sense 
of  the  value  of  money,  a  rigid  avoidance  of  extravagance 
and  excess ;  everywhere  a  strenuous  purpose  in  life,  con- 
stant employment,  and  concentrated  ambition. 

After  some  tuition  at  the  Vicarage  of  Seaforth,  where 
Arthur  Penrhyn  Stanley  was  among  his  fellow-pupils,  Will- 
iam Gladstone  left  home  for  Eton.  From  a  provincial 
town,  from  mercantile  surroundings,  from  an  atmosphere 


6  MR.  GLADSTONE 

of  money-making,  from  a  strictly-regulated  life,  the  impres- 
sionable boy  was  transplanted,  at  the  age  of  eleven,  to  the 
shadow  of  Windsor  and  the  banks  of  the  Thames,  to  an 
institution  which  belongs  to  history,  to  scenes  haunted  by 
the  memory  of  the  most  illustrious  Englishmen,  to  a  free 
and  independent  existence  among  companions  who  were 
the  very  flower  of  English  boyhood.  A  transition  so  vio- 
lent and  yet  so  delightful  was  bound  to  produce  an  impres- 
sion which  lapse  of  time  was  powerless  to  efface,  and  no 
one  who  knows  the  man  and  the  school  can  wonder  that 
for  seventy  years  Mr.  Gladstone  has  been  the  most  enthu- 
siastic of  Etonians. 

He  entered  Eton  after  the  summer  holidays  of  182 1, 
under  the  Head-Mastership  of  the  terrific  Dr.  Keate.  To 
quote  the  emphatic  testimony  of  Sir  Roderick  Murchison, 
he  was  then  'the  prettiest  little  boy  that  ever  went  to 
Eton.'  He  boarded  at  Mrs.  Shurey's,  a  house  at  the  south 
end  of  the  broad  walk  in  front  of  the  schools  and  facing 
the  chapel,  and  rather  nearer  the  famous  'Christopher 
Inn '  than  would  nowadays  be  thought  desirable.  On  the 
wall  opposite  the  house  (which  now  belongs  to  Mr.  Carter) 
the  name  of  '  Gladstone,'  carved,  it  is  believed,  by  the 
statesman's  own  hand,  may  still  be  traced.  His  tutor  was 
the  Rev.  Henry  Hartopp  Knapp.  His  brothers,  Thomas 
and  Robertson  Gladstone,  were  already  at  Eton,  and 
boarded  in  Mrs.  Shurey's  house.  Thomas  was  in  the 
Fifth  Form,  and  William,  v/ho  was  placed  in  the  middle 
remove  of  the  Fourth  Form,  became  his  eldest  brother's 
fag. 

A  famous  line  in  Lord  Lytton's  '  New  Timon '  has 
recorded  the  fact  that  Mr.  Gladstone  was  what  Etonians, 
with  classical  elegance,  designate  a  'sap.'    In  other  words, 


SCHOOL-DAYS  AT  ETON  7 

he  was  not  ashamed  to  fulfil  the  purpose  for  which  boys 
are,  at  any  rate  in  theory,  sent  to  school.  He  worked  hard 
at  his  classical  lessons,  and  supplemented  the  ordinary 
business  of  the  school  by  studying  mathematics  in  the 
holidays.  His  interest  in  work  was  first  aroused  by  Mr. 
Hawtrey,  afterwards  Head- Master,  who  commended  a 
copy  of  his  Latin  verses,  and  'sent  him  up  for  good.' 
This  experience  first  led  the  young  student  to  associate 
intellectual  work  with  the  ideas  of  ambition  and  success. 
He  was  not  a  fine  scholar,  in  that  restricted  sense  of  the 
term  which  implies  a  special  aptitude  for  turning  English 
into  Greek  and  Latin  or  for  original  versification  in  the 
classical  languages.  '  His  composition,'  we  read,  '  was 
stiff,'  but  he  was  imbued  with  the  substance  of  his  authors  ; 
and  a  contemporary  who  was  in  the  Sixth  Form  with  him 
remarks  that '  when  there  were  thrilling  passages  of  Virgil 
or  Homer,  or  difficult  passages  in  the  ■'  Scriptores  Graeci " 
to  translate,  he  or  Lord  Arthur  Hervey  was  generally  called 
up  to  edify  the  class  with  quotation  or  translation.' 

By  common  consent,  he  was  pre-eminently  God-fearing, 
orderly,  and  conscientious.  'At  Eton,'  said  the  late  Bishop 
Hamilton,  of  Salisbury,  'I  was  a  thoroughly  idle  boy;  but 
I  was  saved  from  some  worse  things  by  getting  to  know 
Gladstone.'  To  have  exercised,  while  still  a  schoolboy,  an 
influence  for  good  on  one  of  the  greatest  of  contemporary 
saints  is  surely  such  a  distinction  as  few  Prime  Ministers 
ever  attained.  A  schoolfellow  still  living  remembers  seeing 
William  Gladstone  turn  his  glass  upside  down  and  decline 
to  drink  a  coarse  toast  proposed,  according  to  annual  cus- 
tom, at  an  election-dinner  at  the  '  Christopher.'  He  was  not 
only  pure-minded  and  courageous,  but  humane.  He  stood 
forth  as  the  champion  of  some  wretched  pigs,  which  it  was 


8  MR.   GLADSTONE 

the  custom  to  torture  at  Eton  Fair  on  Ash  Wednesday,  and 
when  bantered  by  his  schoolfellows  for  his  humanity,  offered 
to  write  his  reply  '  in  good  round  hand  upon  their  faces.' 

His  most  intimate  friend  was  Arthur  Hallam,  by  uni- 
versal acknowledgment  the  most  remarkable  Etonian  of 
his  day;  in  mind  and. character  not  unworthy  of  the  mag- 
nificent eulogy  of  'In  Memoriam.'  Although  they  boarded 
in  different  houses,  Gladstone  and  Hallam  always  break- 
fasted together,  and,  when  separated  by  the  holidays,  cor- 
responded diligently  with  one  another.  On  August  23, 
1826,  Hallam  wrote  to  a  common  friend:  'I  heard  from 
Gladstone  shortly  after  your  letter  reached  me — a  long  and 
very  orderly  epistle,  as  you  may  suppose,  full  of  lamenta- 
tions about  Liverpool,  the  country  and  the  Ministry,  and 
of  high-flying  eulogiums  on  Walter  Scott's  "  Woodstock." ' 

Among  their  schoolfellows  were  John  Hanmer,  after- 
wards Lord  Hanmer ;  Sir  James  Colville,  Chief  Justice  at 
Calcutta ;  Frederic  Rogers,  Lord  Blachford ;  Spencer  Wal- 
pole.  Home  Secretary  in  the  days  of  the  Reform  League  ; 
Gerald  Wellesley,  Dean  of  Windsor  ;  Frederick  Tennyson, 
Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis,  William  Selwyn,  William 
Cavendish,  now  Duke  of  Devonshire ;  Lord  Arthur  Her- 
vey,  now  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells ;  George  Selwyn,  suc- 
cessively Bishop  of  New  Zealand  and  of  Lichfield ;  Alex- 
ander Kinglake,  Sir  Francis  Doyle,  Henry  Denison,  James 
Milnes-Gaskell,  M.P.  for  Wenlock;  James  Bruce,  after- 
wards Earl  of  Elgin  ;  James  Hope,  afterwards  Hope-Scott ; 
Charles  Canning,  afterwards  Earl  Canning  and  Governor- 
General  of  India ;  Walter  Hamilton,  afterwards  Bishop  of 
Salisbury ;  and  his  brother,  Edward  Hamilton,  now  of 
Charters. 

Young  Gladstone  took  no  delight  in  games.    One  of  his 


THE   DEBATING  SOCIETY  9 

contemporaries  has  often  declared,  'without  challenge  or 
contradiction,  that  he  was  never  seen  to  run  ';  but  he  was 
fond  of  sculling,  and  kept  a  '  lock-up,'  or  private  boat,  for 
his  own  use.  He  walked  fast  and  far ;  and  his  chief  amuse- 
ment, when  he  was  not  debating  or  reading  or  writing,  was 
to  roam  about  the  delightful  neighbourhood  of  Windsor  in 
the  congenial  company  of  a  few  like-minded  friends.  One 
of  these,  James  Milnes-Gaskell,  writing  to  his  mother  on 
June  30,  1826,  says  :  '  I  was  out  all  yesterday  evening  with 
Gladstone,  who  is  one  of  the  cleverest  and  most  sensible 
people  I  ever  met  with'  —  odd  praise  in  a  schoolboy's 
mouth.  At  the  end  of  1827,  Charles  Canning  writes: 
'  Handley,  Gladstone,  Mr.  Bruce,  Lord  Bruce,  Hodgson, 
and  myself,  set  up  a  Salt  Hill  Club  at  the  end  of  the  half. 
We  met  every  whole  holiday  or  half,  as  was  convenient, 
after  twelve,  and  went  up  to  Salt  Hill  to  bully  the  fat 
waiter,  eat  toasted  cheese,  and  drink  egg-wine.'  It  is  start- 
ling to  learn,  on  the  same  unimpeachable  authority,  that 
'  in  all  our  meetings,  as  well  as  at  almost  every  time,  Glad- 
stone went  by  the  name  of  Mr.  Tipple.' 

But  beyond  this  intimate  circle  Gladstone  was  not  gen- 
erally popular  or  even  widely  known.  He  was  seen  to  the 
greatest  advantage,  and  was  most  thoroughly  at  home,  in 
the  debates  of  the  Eton  Society,  learnedly  called  'The 
Literati,'  and  vulgarly  'Pop,'  and  in  the  editorship  of  the 
'  Eton  Miscellany.'  The  Eton  Society  in  Gladstone's  day 
was  a  remarkable  group  of  brilliant  boys.  Its  meetings 
were  held  over  Miss  Hatton's  'sock-shop.'  Its  tone  was 
intensely  Tory.  Current  politics  were  forbidden  subjects, 
but  political  opinion  disclosed  itself  through  the  thin  dis- 
guise of  historical  or  academical  questions.  The  execution 
of  Strafford  and  Charles  I.,  the  characters  of  Oliver  Crom- 


lO  MR.  GLADSTONE 

well  and  Milton,  the  '  Contrat  Social '  of  Rousseau,  and  the 
events  of  the  French  Revolution,  laid  bare  the  speakers' 
political  tendencies  as  effectually  as  if  the  conduct  of 
Queen  Caroline,  the  foreign  policy  of  Lord  Castlereagh, 
or  the  repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Act,  had  been 
the  subject  of  debate.  Mr.  Gladstone  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Society  on  October  15,  1825.  On  the  29th  of 
the  same  month  he  made  his  maiden  speech  on  the  ques- 
tion, '  Is  the  education  of  the  poor  on  the  whole  beneficial  ?' 
The  contemporary  scribe  records  that  '  Mr.  Gladstone  rose 
and  eloquently  addressed  the  House '  in  favour  of  educa- 
tion ;  and  one  who  heard  him  says  that  his  opening  words 
were,  '  Sir,  in  this  age  of  increased  and  increasing  civiliza- 
tion.' It  almost  oppresses  the  imagination  to  picture  the 
shoreless  sea  of  eloquence  which  rolls  between  that  exor- 
dium and  the  oratory  to  which  we  still  are  listening,  and 
hope  to  listen  for  years  to  come. 

During  the  remainder  of  his  time  at  Eton,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone took  a  leading  part  both  in  the  debates  and  in  the 
private  business  of  the  Society.  We  find  him  introducing 
promising  members,  among  them  Mr.  Kinglake,  agitating 
for  more  readable  and  instructive  newspapers,  proposing 
rules  calculated  to  ensure  orderly  and  decorous  conduct, 
moving  fines  on  those  guilty  of  disorder  or  breaches  of  rule, 
and  himself  the  subject  of  a  fine  for  putting  down  an  illegal 
question.  In  debate  he  champions  the  claims  of  meta- 
physics against  those  of  mathematics,  and  defends  aristoc- 
racy against  democracy.  He  confesses  '  innate  feelings  of 
dislike  to  the  French.'  He  protests  against  the  disarma- 
ment of  the  Highlanders  as  '  in  the  name  of  policy  inexpe- 
dient, in  the  name  of  God  unjust.'  In  a  debate  on  the  fate 
of  Strafford  he  deplores  the  action  of  the  House  of  Com- 


SPEECHES  AT   ETON  II 

mons,  which  we  ought  to  be  able  to  '  revere  as  our  glory 
and  confide  in  as  our  protection.'  The  peroration  of  his 
speech  on  the  question  whether  Queen  Anne's  Ministers, 
in  the  last  four  years  of  her  reign,  deserved  well  of  their 
country,  is  so  characteristic,  both  in  substance  and  in  form, 
that  it  deserves  reproduction  here  : — 

Thus  much,  Sir,  I  have  said,  as  conceiving  myself  bound 
in  fairness  not  to  regard  the  names  under  which  men  have 
hidden  their  designs  so  much  as  the  designs  themselves.  I  am 
well  aware  that  my  prejudices  and  my  predilections  have  long 
been  enlisted  on  the  side  of  Toryism — (cheers) — and  that  in  a 
cause  like  this  I  am  not  likely  to  be  influenced  unfairly  against 
men  bearing  that  name  and  professing  to  act  on  the  princi- 
ples which  I  have  always  been  accustomed  to  revere.  But 
the  good  of  my  country  must  stand  on  a  higher  ground  than 
distinctions  like  these.  In  common  fairness  and  in  common 
candour,  I  feel  myself  compelled  to  give  my  decisive  verdict 
against  the  conduct  of  men  whose  measures  I  firmly  believe 
to  have  been  hostile  to  British  interests,  destructive  of  British 
glory,  and  subversive  of  the  splendid  and,  I  trust,  lasting  fabric 
of  the  British  Constitution. 

The  following  extracts  are  from  the  diary  of  the  Hon. 
William  Cowper,  afterwards  Lord  Mount -Temple.  On 
Saturday,  October  27,  1827,  the  subject  for  debate  was— 

'Whether  the  deposition  of  Richard  II.  was  justifiable  or 
not.'  Jelf  opened  :  not  a  good  speech.  Doyle  spoke  extem- 
pore, made  several  mistakes,  which  were  corrected  by  Jelf. 
Gladstone  spoke  well.  The  Whigs  were  regularly  floored ; 
only  four  Whigs  to  eleven  Tories,  but  they  very  nearly  kept 
up  with  them  in  coughing  and  '  Hear,  hears.'  Adjourned  to 
Monday,  after  4. 

Monday,  29. — Gladstone  finished  his  speech,  and  ended 
with  a  great  deal  of  flattery  of  Doyle,  saying  that  he  was  sure 
he  would  have  courage  enough  to  own  that  he  was  wrong.    It 


12  MR.  GLADSTONE 

succeeded.  Doyle  rose  amidst  reiterated  cheers  to  own  that 
he  was  convinced  by  the  arguments  of  the  other  side.  He 
had  determined  before  to  answer  them  and  cut  up  Gladstone! 
December  i. — Debate,  'Whether  the  Peerage  Bill  of  17 19 
was  calculated  to  be  beneficial  or  not.'  Thanks  voted  to  Doyle 
and  Gladstone ;  the  latter  spoke  very  well :  will  be  a  great 
loss  to  the  Society. 

The  foregoing  extracts  indicate  pretty  clearly  the  polit- 
ical colour  of  the  young  orator's  opinions.  It  is  further  il- 
lustrated by  the  following  anecdote  of  Sir  Francis  Doyle's  : 
— '  One  day  I  was  steadily  computing  the  odds  for  the 
Derby,  as  they  stood  in  a  morning  newspaper.  He  (Mr. 
Gladstone)  leant  over  my  shoulder  to  look  at  the  lot  of 
horses  named.  Now  it  happened  that  the  Duke  of  Grafton 
owned  a  colt  called  Hampden,  who  figured  in  the  aforesaid 
lot.  "  Well,"  cried  Mr.  Gladstone,  reading  of¥  the  odds, 
"  Hampden,  at  any  rate,  I  see,  is  in  his  proper  place,  be- 
tween Z^"^/ and  Lunacy,'^  for  such,  in  truth,  was  the  position 
occupied  by  the  four-footed  namesake  of  that  illustrious 
rebel.' 

In  1827  Mr.  Gladstone  took  part  in  launching  the 
'  Eton  Miscellany.'  Under  the  pseudonym  of  '  Barthol- 
omew Bouverie,'  he  was  at  once  the  editor  and  the  most 
copious  contributor.  The  first  number  appeared  on  June 
4,  1827,  and  the  magazine  lived  till  the  following  Decem- 
ber, which,  as  school  journalism  goes,  must  be  considered 
an  instance  of  longevity.  Among  the  principal  contribu- 
tors were  Sir  James  Colvile,  Sir  Francis  Doyle,  Mr.  Milnes- 
Gaskell,  Arthur  Hallam,  Lord  Hanmer,  and  Bishop  Sel- 
wyn.  Mr.  Gladstone  turned  his  hand  to  every  kind  of 
authorship.  He  wrote  prologues,  epilogues,  leading  arti- 
cles, historical  essays,  satirical  sketches,  classical  transla- 


THE  'ETON    miscellany'  1 3 

tions,  and  humorous  poetry.  His  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  Mr.  Canning,  in  a  paper  on  'Ancient  and  Modern  Gen- 
ius Compared,'  is  full  of  feeling  and  rhetorical  force. 

It  is  for  those  who  revered  him  in  the  plenitude  of  his 
meridian  glory  to  mourn  over  him  in  the  darkness  of  his  pre- 
mature extinction  :  to  mourn  over  the  hopes  that  are  buried 
in  his  grave,  and  the  evils  that  arise  from  his  withdrawing  from 
the  scene  of  life.  Surely  if  eloquence  never  excelled  and  sel- 
dom equalled — if  an  expanded  mind  and  judgment  whose 
vigour  was  paralleled  only  by  its  soundness — if  brilliant  wit — 
if  a  glowing  imagination — if  a  warm  heart,  and  an  unbending 
firmness — could  have  strengthened  the  frail  tenure,  and  pro- 
longed the  momentary  duration  of  human^ existence,  that  man 
had  been  immortal !  But  nature  could  endure  no  longer. 
Thus  has  Providence  ordained  that  inasmuch  as  the  intellect 
is  more  brilliant,  it  shall  be  more  short-lived ;  as  its  sphere  is 
more  expanded,  more  swiftly  is  it  summoned  away.  Lest  we 
should  give  to  man  the  honour  due  to  God — lest  we  should 
exalt  the  object  of  our  admiration  into  a  divinity  for  our  wor- 
ship— He  who  calls  the  weary  and  the  mourner  to  eternal  rest 
hath  been  pleased  to  remove  him  from  our  eyes. 

As  a  sample  of  his  humorous  style  we  take  these  lines 
from  his  mock-heroic  '  Ode  to  the  Shade  of  Wat  Tyler ' : 

Shade  of  him  whose  valiant  tongue 
On  high  the  song  of  freedom  sung ; 
Shade  of  him,  whose  mighty  soul 
"Would  pay  no  taxes  on  his  poll; 
Though,  swift  as  lightning,  civic  sword 

Descended  on  thy  fated  head, 
The  blood  of  England's  boldest  poured, 

And  numbered  Tyler  with  the  dead  ! 

Still  may  thy  spirit  flap  its  wings 
At  midnight  o'er  the  couch  of  kings; 


14  MR.  GLADSTONE 

And  peer  and  prelate  tremble,  too. 
In  dread  of  nightly  interview! 
With  patriot  gesture  of  command, 

With  eyes  that  like  thy  forges  gleam, 
Lest  Tyler's  voice  and  Tyler's  hand 

Be  heard  and  seen  in  nightly  dream. 

I  hymn  the  gallant  and  the  good 
From  Tyler  down  to  Thistlewood, 
My  muse  the  trophies  grateful  sings. 

The  deeds  of  Miller  and  of  Ings ; 
She  sings  of  all  who,  soon  or  late, 

Have  burst  Subjection's  iron  chain. 
Have  seal'd  the  bloody  despot's  fate 

Or  cleft  a  peer  or  priest  in  twain. 

Shades,  that  soft  Sedition  woo. 
Around  the  haunts  of  Peterloo  ! 
That  hover  o'er  the  meeting-halls. 
Where  many  a  voice  stentorian  bawls ! 
Still  flit  the  sacred  choir  around, 

With  '  Freedom  '  let  the  garrets  ring, 
And  vengeance  soon  in  thunder  sound 

On  Church,  and  constable,  and  king. 

Will  it  be  credited  that  a  Tory  critic,  anxious  to  prove 
that  the  Liberal  leader  was  a  revolutionist  from  his  cradle, 
has  gravely  cited  this  ode  as  a  serious  effusion  of  youthful 
Radicalism  ? 

Sir  Francis  Doyle  writes  :  '  Hallam,  Selwyn,  and  the 
other  contributors  left  Eton  at  Midsummer  (or  Election,  as 
we  used  to  call  it),  1827.  Mr.  Gladstone  and  I  remained 
behind  as  its  chief  supporters,  or  rather  it  would  be  more 
like  the  truth  if  I  said  that  Mr.  Gladstone  supported  the 
whole  burden  upon  his  own  shoulders.     I  was  unpunctual 


ARTHUR   HALLAM  S   PREDICTION  I  5 

and  unmethodical,  so  also  were  his  other  vassals ;  and  the 
"  Miscellany  "  would  have  fallen  to  the  ground  but  for  Mr. 
Gladstone's  untiring  energy,  pertinacity,  and  tact.  I  may 
as  well  remark  that  my  father,  a  man  of  great  ability  as  well 
as  of  great  experience  of  life,  predicted  Gladstone's  future 
eminence  from  the  manner  in  which  he  handled  this  some- 
what tiresome  business,  "  It  is  not,"  he  remarked,  "  that  I 
think  his  papers  better  than  yours  or  Hallam's— that  is  not 
my  meaning  at  all ;  but  the  force  of  character  he  has  shown 
in  managing  his  subordinates,  and  the  combination  of 
ability  and  power  that  he  has  made  evident,  convince  me 
that  such  a  young  man  cannot  fail  to  distinguish  himself 
hereafter."  ' 

The  impression  which  he  made  upon  those  of  his 
schoolfellows  who  were  brought  into  contact  with  him  may 
be  gathered  from  one  or  two  quotations  from  contempora- 
ries, themselves  of  no  common  promise.  James  Milnes- 
Gaskell,  urging  his  wish  to  go  to  Oxford  instead  of  Cam- 
bridge, which  his  mother  had  preferred,  gives  as  one  of  the 
reasons  for  his  choice  that  it  would  allow  of  his  continued 
intimacy  with  Gladstone :  '  Gladstone  is  no  ordinary  indi- 
vidual ;  and,  perhaps,  if  I  were  called  on  to  select  the  indi- 
vidual I  am  intimate  with  to  whom  I  should  first  turn  in  an 
emergency,  and  whom  I  thought  in  every  way  pre-eminently 
distinguished  for  high  excellence,  I  think  I  should  turn  to 
Gladstone.  ...  If  you  finally  decide  in  favour  of  Cam- 
bridge, my  separation  from  Gladstone  will  be  a  source  of 
great  sorrow  to  me.' 

And  Arthur  Hallam  says :  '  AVhatever  may  be  our  lot,  I 
am  confident  that  he  is  a  bud  that  will  bloom  with  a  richer 
fragrance  than  almost  any  whose  early  promise  I  have  wit- 
nessed.' 


l6  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Gladstone  left  Eton  at  Christmas,  1827.  He  read  for 
six  months  with  private  tutors,  one  of  whom  was  Dr. 
Turner,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Calcutta. 

With  reference  to  this  part  of  his  life,  he  wrote : — '  I 
resided  with  Dr.  Turner  at  Wilmslow  (in  Cheshire)  from 
January  till  a  few  months  later.  My  residence  with  him  was 
cut  off  by  his  appointment  to  the  Bishopric  of  Calcutta  .  .  . 
My  companions  were  the  present  (1877)  Bishop  of  Sodor 
and  Man,  and  Sir  C.  A.  Wood,  Deputy-Chairman  of  the 
G.  W.  Railway.  We  employed  our  spare  time  in  gymnastics, 
in  turning,  and  in  rambles.  I  remember  paying  a  visit  to 
Macclesfield.  In  a  silk  factory  the  owner  showed  us  his  silk 
handkerchiefs,  and  complained  much  of  Mr.  Huskisson  for 
having  removed  the  prohibition  of  the  foreign  article.  The 
thought  passed  through  my  mind  at  the  time  :  Why  make 
laws  to  enable  people  to  produce  articles  of  such  hideous 
pattern  and  indifferent  quality  as  this  ?  Alderley  Edge 
was  a  favorite  place  of  resort.  We  dined  with  Sir  John 
Stanley  (at  Alderley)  on  the  day  when  the  King's  Speech 
was  received  ;  and  I  recollect  that  he  ridiculed  (I  think 
very  justly)  the  epithet  luitoward,  which  was  applied  in  it 
to  the  Battle  of  Navarino.' 

In  October  1828,  Gladstone  went  up  to  Christ  Church, 
where,  in  the  following  year,  he  was  nominated  to  a  Student- 
ship. The  House  was  then  in  its  days  of  glory.  The  Dean 
was  Dr.  Samuel  Smith,  shortly  after  succeeded  by  Dr.  Gais- 
ford ;  the  Rev.  T.  Vowler  Short,  afterwards  Bishop  of  St. 
Asaph,  and  the  Rev.  Daniel  Veysie  were  the  Censors. 
Among  the  undergraduates  were  Lord  Canning,  Lord  Lin- 
coln, afterwards  Duke  of  Newcastle  ;  Sir  Robert  Philli- 
more,  Walter  Hamilton,  Charles  Wordsworth,  now  Bishop 
of  St.  Andrews ;  Lord  Abercorn,  Lord  Douglas,  afterwards 


CHRIST  CHURCH,  OXFORD  1 7 

Duke  of  Hamilton ;  H.  G.  Liddell,  now  Dean  of  Christ 
Church ;  Sir  Francis  Doyle,  Sir  Thomas  Acland  and  his 
brother  Arthur  Acland-Troyte,  Henry  Ker  Seymer,  M.P. 
for  Dorset ;  Joseph  Anstice,  Professor  of  Greek  and 
Latin  at  King's  College,  and  Henry  Denison,  whose  career 
of  promise  was  cut  short  by  an  accident  in  Australia. 
Among  the  conspicuous  undergraduates  at  other  colleges 
were  Henry  Edward  Manning,  now  Cardinal-Archbishop  ; 
Archibald  Campbell  Tait,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury ; 
Lord  Elgin,  Sidney  Herbert,  James  Hope,  Robert  Lowe, 
now  Lord  Sherbrooke  ;  Robert  Scott,  Dean  of  Rochester, 
and  Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis. 

In  December  1829,  a  deputation  from  the  Union  at 
Cambridge  paid  a  visit  to  Oxford,  and  took  part  in  a  great 
debate  on  the  respective  merits  of  Byron  and  Shelley. 
One  of  the  orators  from  Cambridge  was  Richard  Monck- 
ton  Milnes,  afterwards  Lord  Houghton,  and  in  a  letter  of 
December  5,  1829,  describing  his  visit  to  Oxford,  he  says : 
'  The  man  that  took  me  most  was  the  youngest  Gladstone 
of  Liverpool — I  am  sure,  a  very  superior  person.' 

Mr.  Gladstone's  first  rooms  were  in  the  '  old  library,' 
near  the  hall ;  but  for  the  greater  part  of  his  time  he  occu- 
pied the  right-hand  rooms  on  the  first  floor  of  the  first 
staircase  on  the  right  as  the  visitor  enters  Canterbury  Gate. 
He  was,  alike  in  study  and  in  conduct,  a  model  under- 
graduate, and  the  great  influence  of  his  character  and  tal- 
ents was  used  with  manly  resolution  against  the  riotous 
conduct  of  the  '  Tufts,'  whose  brutality  caused  the  death  of 
one  of  their  number  in  1831.  We  read  this  note  in  the 
correspondence  of  a  friend  :  '  I  heard  from  Gladstone  yes- 
terday ;  he  says  that  the  number  of  Gentlemen  Commoners 
has  increased,  is  increasing,  and  ought  to  be  diminished.' 


1 8  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Everyone  who  has  experienced  the  hubristic  qualities  of 
the  Tufted  race,  and  its  satelUtes,  will  cordially  sympathize 
with  this  sentiment  of  an  orderly  and  industrious  under- 
graduate. He  was  conspicuously  moderate  in  the  use  of 
wine.  His  good  example  in  this  respect  affected  not  only 
his  contemporaries  but  also  his  successors  at  the  Univer- 
sity ;  men  who  followed  him  to  Oxford  ten  years  later  found 
it  still  operative,  and  declare  that  undergraduates  drank  less 
in  the  forties,  because  Gladstone  had  been  courageously 
abstemious  in  the  thirties. 

The  course  of  study  necessary  at  this  time  for  classical 
honours  was  comprehensive,  and  the  method  of  examina- 
tion searching.  A  man  who  aimed  at  a  first-class  would 
'  take  in '  a  list  comprising  from  twelve  to  twenty  books, 
which  he  was  supposed  to  have  mastered  very  completely, 
so  as  to  be  prepared  to  bear  a  pretty  close  examination 
in  their  subjects  and  language.  These  might  be  Homer, 
^schylus,  Sophocles,  part  of  Aristophanes,  Herodotus, 
Thucydides,  perhaps  Polybius,  Virgil,  Horace,  perhaps  Lu- 
cretius, portions  of  Livy  and  Tacitus,  Aristotle's  Ethics,  Pol- 
itics, and  Rhetoric,  perhaps  the  Republic  of  Plato  or  two 
of  the  shorter  dialogues,  and  Butler's  Analogy  or  Sermons. 
The  actual  examination  on  paper  would  be  something  of 
this  kind.  First  day.  Logic  ;  and  translation  from  English 
into  Latin.  Second,  English  Essay ;  translation  from  Greek 
into  English.  Third,  Latin  Essay ;  translation  from  English 
into  Greek.  Fourth,  questions  on  Aristotle  and  Plato ; 
Greek  History,  text,  substance,  critical  questions.  Fifth, 
questions  on  Butler  and  Ethics  ;  Latin  History.  Then  came 
the  viva  voce  by  one  after  another  of  the  four  examiners, 
who  '  heckled '  the  candidate  as  much  as  they  thought  fit 
in  all  his  books  and  subjects.     This,  with  good  examiners 


READING   FOR   HONOURS  I9 

and  good  candidates,  was  a  very  interesting  process,  as 
minute  knowledge,  as  well  as  intelligence  and  general  views, 
came  into  play.  The  Divinity  came  in  at  the  viva  voce. 
The  candidate  was  supposed  to  be  at  home  in  the  Four 
Gospels ;  he  ought  to  knOw  something  of  St.  Paul,  and  he 
was  expected  to  have  a  close  knowledge  of  the  language 
and  general  meaning  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles.  If  he 
'  took  in  '  Butler,  questions  might  arise  out  of  that.  Meta- 
physic  was  not  formally  recognized ;  but  he  might  in  his 
Logic  expect  questions  from  Aristotle's  Organon,  and  other 
philosophical  treatises;  and  his  study  of  Logic  was  sup- 
posed to  have  given  him  some  acquaintance  with  such  sub- 
jects. The  examination  was  designed  to  try,  not  a  man's 
general  cleverness  or  even  knowledge,  but  his  power  of 
mastering  books  intelligently  and  usefully ;  to  test  the  way 
in  which  he  had  employed  himself  in  reading  during  his 
three  years  at  Oxford.  Many  brilliant  men  failed  in  it  for 
want  of  knowledge ;  but  it  was  also  a  trial  of  a  man's  in- 
tellectual power  generally,  as  well  as  of  his  observation  and 
memory.  It  was  meant  to  enforce  thoroughness  of  work, 
not  to  give  honour  to  cleverness. 

Not  content  with  the  intellectual  exertion  which  this 
examination  involved,  Mr.  Gladstone  also  read  for  mathe- 
matical honours.  It  is  said  that  he  read  steadily,  but,  till 
he  neared  his  final  schools,  not  laboriously.  Nothing  was 
ever  allowed  to  interfere  with  his  morning's  work.  He 
read  for  four  hours,  then  he  took  a  constitutional  walk, 
and  though  not  averse  to  hospitality  in  the  way  of  suppers 
and  wine-parties,  he  always  read  for  two  or  three  hours 
before  bed-time.  His  tutor  was  the  Rev.  Robert  Briscoe, 
whose  lectures  on  Aristotle  attracted  some  of  the  best  men 
in  the  University;  and  he  also  attended  the  lectures  t)f 


20  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Dr.  Burton  on  Divinity  and  of  Dr.  Pusey  on  Hebrew.  He 
read  classics  privately  with  the  present  Bishop  of  St. 
Andrews.  The  Long  Vacation  of  1830  he  spent  with  a 
small  reading-party  at  Cuddesdon  Vicarage.  '  It  is  curi- 
ous/writes  a  contemporary,  'to  remember  reading  Plato 
with  Bruce  (Lord  Elgin),  seeing  Manning  hard  at  work 
getting  up  the  text  of  the  Bible  so  as  to  command  great 
facility  in  applying  it,  Gladstone  working  at  Hooker,  whilst 
Hamilton  (Bishop  of  Salisbury)  was  more  inclined,  I  think, 
to  indulge  in  Aristophanes.' 

Mr.  Gladstone's  chosen  friends  and  associates  were  all 
industrious  and  steady  men ;  not  a  few  of  them  more  dis- 
tinctly religious  than  is,  or  was,  common  in  undergraduate 
life.  A  more  secularly- minded  friend,  writing  in  1829, 
notes  his  regret  that  '  Gladstone  has  mixed  himself  up  as 
much  as  he  has  done  with  the  St.  Mary  Hall  and  Oriel 
set,  who  are  really,  for  the  most  part,  only  fit  to  live  with 
maiden  aunts  and  keep  tame  rabbits.' 

He  founded  and  presided  over  an  essay  society,  called 
after  him  the  W  E  G.  The  following  were  the  original 
members: — T.  D.  Acland,  J.  Anstice,  J.  B.  Coll,  F.  Coll, 
F.  H.  Doyle,  J.  M.  Gaskell,  W.  E.  Gladstone,  B.  Harrison, 
J.  T.  Leader,  H.  Moncrieff,  F.  Rogers,  and  H.  Ker  Seymer. 

The  following  members  joined  later: — The  Hon.  J. 
Bruce,  the  Hon.  F.  Bruce,  T.  Egerton,  H.  G.  Liddell,  the 
Earl  of  Lincoln,  F.  D.  Maurice,  N.  Oxnam,  C.  Thornton, 
H.  H.  Vaughan,  and  C.  Marriott. 

One  of  the  surviving  members  of  this  society  remembers 
Mr.  Gladstone  reading  an  elaborate  essay  on  Socrates'  be- 
lief in  immortality. 

During  the  latter  part  of  his  undergraduate  career,  he 
tof)k  a  brief  but  brilliant  share  in  the  proceedings  of  the 


AN   ORATION   AGAINST   REFORM  21 

Union,  of  which  he  was  successively  Secretary  and  Presi- 
dent. He  made  his  maiden  speech  on  February  ii,  1830. 
Brought  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  Mr.  Canning, 
whose  fascinating  eloquence  he  had  heard  at  Liverpool 
and  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  whose  society  he  had 
enjoyed  at  Eton,  he  was  true  to  his  great  master's  teach- 
ing. He  defended  Catholic  emancipation,  and  thought  the 
Duke  of  Wellington's  Government  unworthy  of  national 
confidence.  He  opposed  the  removal  of  Jewish  disabili- 
ties, arguing,  we  are  told  by  a  contemporary,  '  on  the  part 
of  the  Evangelicals,'  and  pleaded  for  the  gradual  extinction, 
in  preference  to  the  immediate  abolition,  of  slavery.  But 
his  great  achievement  was  his  speech  against  the  Whig 
Reform  Bill.  In  April,  1831,  Arthur  Hallam  writes:  'I 
have  had  a  long  letter  from  Gladstone ;  he  is  very  bitter 
against  the  Reform  Bill ';  and  when  he  came  to  deliver  his 
sentiments  in  debate,  his  genuine  indignation  raised  him 
to  an  unusual  pitch  of  eloquence.  He  denounced  the  Bill 
as  destined  to  change  our  form  of  government,  and  to 
break  up  the  foundations  of  social  order.  One  who  heard 
this  famous  discourse  says  that  it  'converted  Alston,  the 
son  of  the  member  for  Hertford,  who  immediately  on  the 
conclusion  of  Gladstone's  speech  walked  across  from  the 
Whig  to  the  Tory  side  of  the  House,  amidst  loud  acclama- 
tions.' 

Another  who  heard  it  says  :  '  Most  of  the  speakers  rose, 
more  or  less,  above  their  usual  level,  but  when  Mr.  Glad- 
stone sat  down  we  all  of  us  felt  that  an  epoch  in  our  lives 
had  occurred.  It  certainly  was  the  finest  speech  of  his 
that  I  ever  heard.'  Bishop  Charles  Wordsworth  says  that 
his  experience  of  Mr.  Gladstone  at  this  time  '  made  me 
(and,  I  doubt  not,  others  also)  feel  no  less  sure  than  of  my 


22  MR.  GLADSTONE 

own  existence  that  Gladstone,  our  then  Christ  Church  un- 
dergraduate, would  one  day  rise  to  be  Prime  Minister  of 
England.' 

In  December  183 1  Mr,  Gladstone  crowned  his  career 
by  taking  a  double  first-class.  The  late  Lord  Halifax  used 
to  say,  with  reference  to  the  increase  in  the  amount  of 
reading  requisite  for  the  highest  honours  :  '  My  double-first 
must  have  been  a  better  thing  than  Peel's ;  Gladstone's 
must  have  been  better  than  mine.' 

Among  the  purely  intellectual  effects  produced  on  Mr. 
Gladstone  by  the  discipline  of  Oxford,  it  is  obvious  to 
reckon  an  almost  excessive  exactness  in  the  statement  of 
propositions,  a  habit  of  rigorous  definition,  a  microscopic 
care  in  the  choice  of  words,  and  a  tendency  to  analyze 
every  sentiment  and  every  phrase,  and  to  distinguish  with 
intense  precaution  between  statements  almost  exactly 
similar.  From  Aristotle  and  Bishop  Butler  and  Edmund 
Burke  he  learned  the  value  of  authority,  the  sacredness  of 
law,  the  danger  of  laying  rash  and  inconsiderate  hands 
upon  the  ark  of  State.  In  the  political  atmosphere  of 
Oxford  he  was  taught  to  apply  these  principles  to  the  civil 
events  of  his  time,  to  dread  innovation,  to  respect  existing 
institutions,  and  to  regard  the  Throne  and  the  Church  as 
inseparably  associated  by  Divine  ordinance. 

The  Toryism  of  the  place  was  of  a  romantic  and  old- 
fashioned  type,  as  far  as  possible  removed  from  the  utili- 
tarian Conservatism  of  a  later  day.  Charles  I.  was  a  saint 
and  martyr,  and  loyalty  to  the  Stuarts  was  a  sentiment 
which,  though  no  longer  practical,  still  lingered  in  the 
dreams  of  men.  The  claims  of  rank  and  birth  were  ad- 
mitted with  a  childlike  cheerfulness.  The  high  function 
of  government  was  the  birthright  of  the  few.     The  people 


THEOLOGY  AT  OXFORD  23 

had  nothing  to  do  with  the  laws,  except  to  obey  them. 
Mr.  Gladstone  has  told  us  that  in  academical  circles  liberty 
was  regarded  with  jealousy  and  fear,  as  something  which 
could  not  be  dispensed  with,  '  but  which  was  continually 
to  be  watched  for  fear  of  excess.' 

The  distinctly  religious  effect  of  Oxford  on  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's mind  was  perhaps  less  direct  than  has  been  gener- 
ally supposed.  His  was  what  Tertullian  calls  '  anima  na- 
turaliter  Christiana.'  He  had  been  carefully  brought  up. 
His  father  was  a  God-fearing  man  according  to  his  light 
and  opportunity,  his  mother  a  devout  Evangelical.  At 
Eton  he  had  been  honourably  distinguished  by  simple  de- 
votion and  stainless  living.  When  he  entered  Oxford  the 
Catholic  revival  had  not  yet  begun.  Cardinal  Newman 
taught  us  to  date  it  from  the  14th  of  July,  1833.  But  the 
High  Church  party  held  the  field.  With  the  exception  of 
a  handful  of  Evangelicals  at  one  obscure  college,  the  re- 
ligious clergy  and  laity  of  Oxford  were  High  Churchmen 
of  the  traditional  type.  Dr.  Routh  still  survived  to  'report,' 
as  Cardinal  Newman  said,  '  to  a  forgetful  generation  what 
had  been  the  theology  of  their  fathers ';  though  his  influ- 
ence was  not  felt  beyond  the  walls  of  Magdalen  College. 
The  Caroline  divinity  still  lingered.  Men  believed  in  the 
Church  as  a  Divine  society,  as  well  as  a  chief  institution 
of  the  realm ;  they  set  store  upon  her  Orders  and  Sacra- 
ments, and  at  least  professed  great  respect  for,  if  they  did 
not  cultivate  intimate  acquaintance  with,  the  writings  of 
her  standard  divines.  At  the  same  time,  they  had  a  holy 
horror  of  Popish  usurpation,  and  Sir  Robert  Peel's  conces- 
sion of  the  Catholic  claims  had  just  cost  him  his  seat  for 
the  University.  But  these  influences  produced  no  imme- 
diate or  conscious  effect  on  Mr.  Gladstone's  mind.     The 


24  MR.   GLADSTONE 

ecclesiastical  atmosphere  of  the  place  was  High  and  Dry, 
and  therefore  as  little  as  possible  attractive  to  an  ardent 
and  spiritual  nature.  Had  his  undergraduate  career  been 
a  few  years  later,  when  the  fascinating  genius  and  austere 
sanctity  of  Cardinal  Newman  had  begun  to  leaven  the  Uni- 
versity, he  would  probably  have  been  numbered  with  that 
band  of  devoted  disciples  who  followed  the  great  Oratorian 
whithersoever  he  went.  But  between  1829  and  1832  there 
was  no  leader  of  paramount  authority  in  the  religious  world 
of  Oxford,  and  the  young  student  of  Christ  Church  was  left 
to  develope  his  own  opinions  and  frame  his  own  course. 
The  blameless  schoolboy  became  a  blameless  undergradu- 
ate ;  diligent,  sober,  regular  alike  in  study  and  devotion, 
giving  his  whole  energies  to  the  duties  of  the  place,  and 
quietly  abiding  in  the  religious  faith  in  which  he  had  been 
trained.  Bishop  Charles  Wordsworth  says  that  no  man  of 
his  standing  in  the  University  habitually  read  his  Bible 
more  or  knew  it  better.  Cardinal  Manning  remembers 
him  walking  to  church  with  his  '  Bible  and  Prayer-book 
tucked  under  his  arm.'  He  paid  surreptitious  visits  to 
Dissenting  chapels ;  denounced  Bishop  Butler's  doctrine 
that  human  nature  is  not  wholly  corrupt ;  was  enraged  by 
a  University  sermon  in  which  Calvin  had  been  placed  on 
the  same  level  of  orthodoxy  as  Socinus ;  and  quitted  Ox- 
ford with  a  religious  belief  still  untinctured  by  Catholic 
theology.  But  the  great  change  was  not  far  distant,  and 
he  had  already  formed  some  of  the  friendships  which,  in 
their  development,  were  destined  to  affect  so  profoundly 
the  course  of  his  religious  thought. 

Leaving  the  University  in  this  devout  though  not  eccle- 
siastical frame  of  mind,  Mr.  Gladstone  pondered  carefully 
the  choice  of  a  profession.     Conscious  of  great  powers, 


SIX   MONTHS   IN   ITALY  2$ 

keenly  anxious  to  use  them  for  God's  glory  and  the  service 
of  men,  and  relieved  by  his  father's  wealth  from  the  neces- 
sity of  making  his  own  fortune,  he  turned  his  thoughts  to 
Holy  Orders.  There  still  exists  a  deeply  interesting  let- 
ter in  which  he  urges,  with  characteristic  earnestness,  the 
reasons  which  impelled  him  to  a  clerical  career.  But  his 
father  had  resolved  otherwise,  and  the  paternal  will  pre- 
vailed. Quitting  Oxford  in  the  spring  of  1832,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone spent  six  months  in  Italy,  learning  the  language, 
studying  the  art,  and  revelling  in  the  natural  beauties  of 
that  glorious  land.  In  the  following  September  he  was 
suddenly  recalled  to  England,  to  undertake  his  first  parlia- 
mentary campaign. 


26  MR.  GLADSTONE 


CHAPTER   II 

Enters  Parliament — Early  speeches — Office — Opposition. 

The  English  nation  had  now  reached  one  of  the  main 
turning-points  in  its  history.  That  which  the  Duke  of 
WelUngton  so  aptly  described  as  a  revolution  by  due  course 
of  law  had  taken  place,  and  the  most  extravagant  expecta- 
tion of  its  results  filled  the  air.  The  enthusiastic  friends  of 
freedom  looked  with  sanguine  hope  to  the  consequences  of 
an  act  which  had  admitted  large  classes,  hitherto  unrepre- 
sented, to  the  rights  of  citizenship.  Prudent  patriots  be- 
lieved that,  by  a  timely  concession  of  reform,  they  had 
weakened  the  forces  of  revolution  and  averted  the  neces- 
sity for  larger  change.  Philanthropists  cherished  the  ami- 
able illusion  that  a  purely  political  process  would  go  far 
towards  abolishing  ignorance  and  poverty  and  disease,  and 
would  precipitate  a  social  millennium.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  rfch  and  the  privileged  classes,  timid  men,  and  lovers 
of  the  ancient  ways,  were  terrified  by  the  scenes  of  blood- 
shed and  violence  which  had  prepared  the  way  for  the 
great  reform.  A  revolution  had  just  occurred  in  France, 
and  might  at  any  moment  be  reproduced  in  England.  Ire- 
land was  in  a  state  of  scarcely-veiled  insurrection.  Great 
political  forces,  hostile  to  the  established  order,  and  en- 
couraged by  a  momentous  victory,  were  no  longer  restrained 
by  the  strong  hand  of  executive  autliority.    Credit  was  dis- 


SIGNS   OF  THE   TIMES  2/ 

turbecl,  property  was  insecure,  commercial  enterprise  at  a 
standstill.  Everywhere  the  signs  of  change  were  visible. 
The  horizon  was  overcast  with  the  dark  clouds  of  coming 
danger.  Natural  disasters  were  added  to  political  alarms. 
A  mysterious  and  intractable  pestilence  ravaged  the  great 
cities.  Men's  hearts  were  failing  them  for  fear  and  for 
looking  after  those  things  that  were  coming  on  the  earth. 
Religious  people,  assembling  themselves  together  for  the 
study  of  sacred  prophecy,  discerned  all  around  them  the 
signs  of  the  end,  and  persuaded  themselves  that  the  world 
had  already  entered  upon  that  Great  Tribulation  which  is 
appointed  to  precede  the  Second  Coming  of  Christ.  The 
terrors  of  the  time  begat  a  hundred  forms  of  strange  fanat- 
icism ;  and  among  men  who  were  not  fanatics  there  was  a 
deep  and  wide  conviction  that  national  judgments  were 
overtaking  national  sins,  and  that  the  only  hope  of  safety 
for  England  lay  in  a  return  to  that,  practical  recognition  of 
religion  in  the  political  sphere  which  had  been  the  charac- 
teristic glory  of  Englishmen  at  the  proudest  moments  of 
English  history.  '  The  beginning  and  the  end  of  what  is 
the  matter  with  us  in  these  days,'  wrote  Mr.  Carlyle,  'is 
that  we  have  forgotten  God.' 

It  was  a  moment  well  calculated  to  awake  the  enthusiasm 
of  an  ardent  and  gifted  youth,  educated  in  an  Evangelical 
home,  trained  to  dread  revolution  and  to  abhor  infidelity, 
and  conscious  of  exceptional  qualifications  for  the  service  of 
the  State ;  and  we  who  know  the  man,  have  seen  his  career, 
and  have  watched  the  workings  of  his  fiery  spirit,  can  imag- 
ine the  solemn  eagerness  with  which,  in  the  autumn  of  1832, 
the  young  politician  turned  his  steps  from  Italy  to  England. 

The  fiflii  Duke  of  Newcastle  was  one  of  the  chief  po- 
tentates of  the  High  Tory  party.     His  frank  claim  to  'do 


28  MR.  GLADSTONE 

what  he  Uked  with  his  own'  in  the  representation  of 
Newark  has  given  him  a  place  in  political  history.  But 
that  claim  had  been  rudely  disputed  by  the  return  of  a 
Radical  lawyer  at  the  election  of  1831.  The  Duke  was 
anxious  to  obtain  a  capable  candidate  to  aid  him  in  regain- 
ing his  ascendency  over  the  rebellious  borough.  His  son, 
Lord  Lincoln,  who  was  to  contest  Nottinghamshire,  had 
been  a  friend,  at  Eton  and  Oxford,  of  Mr.  William  Glad- 
stone, had  heard  his  memorable  speech  against  the  Reform 
Bill  delivered  in  the  Oxford  Union,  and  had  written  home 
that  'a  man  had  uprisen  in  Israel.'  At  his  suggestion, 
the  Duke  invited  the  young  student  of  Christ  Church  to 
stand  for  Newark  in  the  Tory  interest,  against  Mr.  Serjeant 
Wilde,  afterwards  Lord  Chancellor  Truro.  He  could 
scarcely  have  found  a  more  suitable  instrument  for  the 
accomplishment  of  his  design. 

William  Ewart  Gladstone  was  now  twenty-two  years 
old,  with  a  physical  constitution  of  unequalled  vigour,  the 
prospect  of  ample  fortune,  great  and  varied  knowledge,  a 
natural  tendency  to  political  theorization,  and  an  inex- 
haustible copiousness  and  readiness  of  speech.  In  person 
he  was  striking  and  attractive,  with  strongly-marked  feat- 
ures, a  pale  complexion,  abundance  of  dark  hair,  and  eyes 
of  piercing  lustre.  People  who  judged  only  by  his  external 
aspect  considered  that  he  was  delicate. 

His  address  to  the  electors  was  all  that  such  a  document 
should  be.  He  was  bound  by  the  opinions  of  no  man  and 
no  party,  but  felt  it  a  duty  to  watch  and  resist  that  growing 
desire  for  change  which  threatened  to  produce,  '  along  with 
partial  good,  a  melancholy  preponderance  of  mischief.' 
The  first  principle  to  which  he  looked  for  national  salvation 
was  that  the   duties  of  Governors  are  strictly  and  peculiarly 


THE   ELECTION  AT   NEWARK  29 

religious,  and  that  Legislatures,  like  individuals,  are  bound 
to  carry  throughout  their  acts  the  spirit  of  the  high  truths 
they  have  acknowledged.'  The  condition  of  the  poor  de- 
manded special  attention  ;  labour  should  receive  adequate 
remuneration,  and  he  thought  favourably  of  the  '  allotment 
of  cottage  grounds.'  He  regarded  slavery  as  sanctioned 
by  Holy  Scripture,  but  the  slaves  were  to  be  educated,  and 
gradually  emancipated. 

The  nomination  took  place  on  December  11.  Mr. 
Gladstone  spoke  amid  continuous  interruption,  and  was 
subjected  to  a  severe  cross-examination  as  to  the  circum- 
stances of  his  candidature,  his  father's  connexion  with 
slavery,  and  his  own  view  of  capital  punishment.  Here  his 
dialectical  ingenuity  stood  him  in  good  stead,  and  one  can 
almost  sympathize  with  the  perplexity  of  the  Radical  elector 
who,  on  asking  the  Tory  candidate  if  he  was  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle's  nominee,  was  met  by  the  intimation  that, 
before  answering  that  question,  Mr.  Gladstone  must  have 
the  questioner's  definition  of  the  term  '  nominee.'  '  Mr. 
Gillson  said  he  meant  a  person  sent  by  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle  to  be  pushed  down  the  electors'  throats  whether 
they  would  or  not.'  Really,  as  times  go,  this  seems  not  a 
bad  definition ;  but  Mr.  Gladstone  replied  that,  according 
to  that  definition,  'he  was  not  a  nominee.  He  came  to 
Newark  by  the  invitation  of  the  Red  Club,  than  whom 
none  were  more  respectable  and  intelligent.' 

The  contest  was  fought  out  with  great  spirit  and  deter- 
mination, and  when  it  closed  Mr.  Gladstone  was  returned 
at  the  head  of  the  poll.  The  borough  returned  two 
members :  another  Tory  was  second,  and  Serjeant  Wilde 
was  defeated.  A  few  weeks  before  the  election  Mr.  Arthur 
Hallam,  writing  of  his  friend, '  the  old  WEG,'  says :  '  I  shall 


30  MR.  GLADSTONE 

be  very  glad  if  he  gets  in,  .  .  ,  We  want  such  a  man  as  that. 
In  some  things  he  is  Ukely  to  be  obstinate  and  prejudiced ; 
but  he  has  a  fine  fund  of  high,  chivalrous,  Tory  sentiment, 
and  a  tongue,  moreover,  to  let  it  loose  with.'  And  on 
December  15  he  exclaims,  'And  Gladstone  has  turned  out 
the  Sergeant !  .  .  .  What  a  triumph  for  him !  He  has  made 
his  reputation  by  it ;  all  that  remains  is  to  keep  up  to  it.' 

The  following  descriptive  prophecy  is  taken  from  a 
poem  by  one  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  Liberal  opponents  in  the 
Union  at  Oxford,  and  it  is  worthy  of  quotation  as  showing 
the  impression  which  his  talents  and  character  had  made 
even  upon  those  of  his  contemporaries  whose  political 
opinions  were  the  most  remote  from  his  own  : 

Yet  on  one  form,  whose  ear  can  ne'er  refuse 

The  Muses'  tribute,  for  he  lov'd  the  Muse, 

(And  when  the  soul  the  gen'rous  virtues  raise, 

A  friendly  Whig  may  chant  a  Tory's  praise), 

Full  many  a  fond  expectant  eye  is  bent 

Where  Newark's  towers  are  mirror'd  in  the  Trent. 

Perchance  ere  long  to  shine  in  senates  first. 

If  manhood  echo  what  his  youth  rehears'd. 

Soon  Gladstone's  brows  will  bloom  with  greener  bays 

Than  twine  the  chaplet  of  a  minstrel's  lays ; 

Nor  heed,  while  poring  o'er  each  graver  line. 

The  far,  faint  music  of  a  lute  like  mine. 

His  was  no  head  contentedly  which  press'd 

The  downy  pillow  in  obedient  rest. 

Where  lazy  pilots,  with  their  canvas  furl'd 

Set  up  the  Gades  of  their  mental  world  ; 

His  was  no  tongue  which  meanly  stoop'd  to  wear 

The  guise  of  virtue,  while  his  heart  was  bare  ; 

But  all  he  thought  through  ev'ry  action  ran  ; 

God's  noblest  work — I've  known  one  honest  man.* 

*  Black  Gozvns  and  Red  Coats :  a  satirical  poem.  By  George  Cox, 
M.A.,  Fellow  of  New  College,  Oxford.      1834. 


THE   REFORMED   PARLIAMENT  3 1 

The  first  Reformed  Parliament  met  on  Januarys  29,  1S33, 
and  the  young  member  for  Newark  took  his  seat  for  the 
first  time  in  an  assembly  which  he  was  destined  to  adorn, 
delight,  and  astonish  for  more  than  half  a  century,  and 
over  which,  for  a  great  portion  of  that  period,  he  was  to 
wield  an  unequalled  and  a  paramount  authority.  The 
House  of  Commons  contained  more  than  three  hundred 
new  members.  The  Whigs,  led  by  Lord  Althorp,  had  a 
large  majority ;  but  there  was  a  compact  minority  of  To- 
ries, ranged  under  the  skilful  leadership  of  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
and  a  body  of  Irish  members  who  followed  O'Conncll,  and 
who  might  be  reckoned  as  hostile  to  the  Ministry. 

The  subjects  which  loomed  largest  in  the  public  mind 
were  the  social  condition  of  Ireland  and  the  position  of  the 
Established  Church  in  that  island,  the  discontent  and  mis- 
ery of  the  poor  in  England,  and  slavery  in  the  British  Col- 
onies. No  reference  to  the  last-named  subject  was  made 
in  the  Speech  from  the  Throne,  but,  under  salutary  press- 
ure from  some  of  their  supporters,  the  Government  re- 
solved to  deal  with  it.  The  Colonial  Secretary,  Mr.  Stanley 
(afterwards  fourteenth  Earl  of  Derby  and  Prime  Minister), 
brought  forward  a  series  of  Resolutions  in  favour  of  the 
extinction  of  slavery  in  the  British  colonies.  All  children 
of  slaves,  born  after  the  passing  of  the  Act,  and  all  chil- 
dren of  six  years  old  and  under,  were  declared  free.  But 
the  rest  of  the  slaves  were  to  serve  a  sort  of  apprentice- 
ship ;  three-fourths  of  their  time  was  for  a  certain  number 
of  years  to  remain  at  the  disposal  of  the  masters  ;  the  other 
fourth  was  their  own,  to  be  paid  for  at  a  fixed  rate  of  wages. 
The  planters  were  to  be  fairly  compensated  out  of  the 
exchequer.  The  discussion  of  these  resolutions  was  sig- 
nalized by  Mr.  Gladstone's  maiden  speech  in  Parliament. 


32  MR.  GLADSTONE 

It  was  delivered  in  reply  to  what  was  almost  a  personal 
challenge.  On  the  first  night  of  the  debate  Lord  Howick 
(now  Lord  Grey),  who  had  been  Under-Secretary  for  the 
Colonies,  and  who  opposed  the  resolutions  as  proceeding 
too  gradually  towards  abolition,  cited  certain  occurrences 
on  Sir  John  Gladstone's  plantation  in  Demerara  to  illus- 
trate his  contention  that  the  system  of  slave-labour  in  the 
West  Indies  was  attended  by  great  mortality  among  the 
slaves.  On  May  17  Mr.  Gladstone  delivered  his  reply  to 
Lord  Howick.  Among  those  who  knew  the  young  mem- 
ber for  Newark  his  speech  was  anticipated  with  lively  ex- 
pectation. 

He  was  riding  that  morning  in  Hyde  Park,  a  noticeable 
figure  on  his  grey  Arabian  mare,  with  'his  hat,  narrow- 
brimmed,  high  up  on  the  centre  of  his  head,  sustained  by 
a  crop  of  thick,  curly  hair.'  A  passer-by  pointed  him  out 
to  another  new  member — Lord  Charles  Russell — and  said, 
'  That  is  Gladstone.  He  is  to  make  his  maiden  speech  to- 
night. It  will  be  worth  hearing.'  The  speech  began  with 
all  due  modesty.  Lord  Howick,  he  said,  had  attacked  the 
management  of  his  father's  estates.  He  met  some  of  the 
noble  Lord's  statements  with  denials,  and  some  with  ex- 
planations. There  was  no  great  mortality  and  no  excessive 
hardship  on  the  plantation.  The  particular  form  of  culti- 
vation practised  in  Demerara  was  no  doubt  more  severe 
than  some  others  ;  but  house-painting  and  working  in  lead- 
mines  were  also  known  to  be  more  dangerous  to  life  than 
other  occupations.  His  father's  manager  was  the  kindest 
of  men,  and  the  slaves  under  his  charge  were  the  happiest, 
healthiest,  and  most  contented  of  their  race. 

Fortunate  indeed,  perhaps  unduly  so,  was  the  venerable 
slave-owner  who  could  command  the   services  of  such  a 


THE   CONDITION   OF   IRELAND  33 

parliamentary  advocate  as  this.  On  June  3  Mr.  Gladstone 
spoke  more  fully  in  the  same  sense,  deprecated  slavery, 
condemned  cruelty,  was  favourable  to  emancipation,  but 
thought  that  it  should  be  effected  gradually,  and  after  due 
preparation.  The  slaves  must  be  educated,  and  '  stimulated 
to  spontaneous  industry,'  as  the  owners  must  be  fully  com- 
pensated. During  the  same  Session  Mr,  Gladstone  spoke 
on  the  question  of  bribery  and  corruption  at  Liverpool, 
and  on  July  8  he  made  an  elaborate  speech  on  the  Church 
Temporalities  (Ireland)  Bill. 

The  condition  of  Ireland  was  then,  as  now,  the  most 
urgent  of  all  the  problems  which  awaited  the  Ministry. 
Mr.  Macaulay  '  solemnly  declared  that  he  would  rather  live 
in  the  midst  of  many  civil  wars  that  he  had  read  of  than  in 
some  parts  of  Ireland  at  this  moment.'  Sydney  Smith  did 
not  over-colour  the  picture  when  he  described  '  those  Irish 
Protestants  whose  shutters  are  bullet-proof ;  whose  dinner- 
table  is  regularly  spread  out  with  knife,  fork,  and  cocked 
pistol;  salt-cellar,  and  powder-flask;  who  sleep  in  sheet- 
iron  nightcaps ;  who  have  fought  so  often  and  so  nobly 
before  their  scullery-door,  and  defended  the  parlour  pas- 
sage as  bravely  as  Leonidas  defended  the  pass  of  Ther- 
mopylae.' 

In  the  province  of  Leinster  alone,  in  the  previous  July, 
August,  and  September,  there  had  been  1,279  crimes,  and 
in  the  following  three  months  the  number  had  risen  to 
1,641.  During  the  year,  the  catalogue  of  outrages  con- 
tained 172  homicides,  465  robberies,  568  burglaries,  454 
acts  of  cruelty  to  cattle,  2,095  illegal  notices,  425  illegal 
meetings,  796  malicious  injuries  to  property,  753  attacks 
on  houses,  280  arsons,  and  3,156  serious  assaults — in  all, 
more  than  9,000  crimes  connected  with  the  disaffected 
3 


34  MR.  GLADSTONE 

State  of  the  people.  To  remedy  this  condition,  the  Gov- 
ernment, on  February  15,  introduced  a  stringent  Coercion 
Bill.  Power  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord  Lieuten- 
ant to  suppress  every  meeting  or  association  which  he  re- 
garded as  dangerous  to  the  preservation  of  peace  and  to 
declare  any  district  to  be  in  a  disturbed  state.  In  a  dis- 
trict so  proclaimed,  the  inhabitants  were  to  be  confined  to 
their  houses  from  an  hour  after  sunset  to  sunrise  ;  the  right 
of  meeting  and  petitioning  was  withdrawn ;  and  they  were 
placed  under  martial  law.  The  Bill  further  gave  power  to 
enter  houses  in  search  of  arms,  forbade  the  distribution  of 
seditious  papers,  and  suspended  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act 
in  the  disturbed  districts.  Mr.  Gladstone  gave  silent  votes 
for  the  Bill,  which  duly  passed  into  law.  Meanwhile,  in 
order  to  render  this  drastic  Act  more  palatable,  the  Min- 
istry, on  February  12,  introduced  a  Bill  for  the  regulation 
of  the  Irish  Church.  Even  the  warmest  defenders  of  that 
institution  could  scarcely  deny  that  it  stood  in  need  of 
some  reform.  In  a  country  with  some  eight  millions  of  in- 
habitants, the  Established  Church  boasted  some  eight  hun- 
dred thousand  members.  It  had  four  Archbishops  and 
eighteen  bishops,  with  an  aggregate  income  of  150,000/.  a 
year,  and  a  body  of  parochial  clergy  supported  by  tithes 
which  were  exacted,  not  only  from  the  Protestant  minority, 
but  from  the  six  millions  of  Catholics.  Besides  the  pay- 
ment of  tithes,  a  special  tax,  or  'Church  cess,'  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  ecclesiastical  fathers  and  their  services, 
was  levied  indiscriminately  on  members  of  all  religions, 
but  administered  exclusively  by  Protestant  vestries.  It 
was  estimated  that  from  first  to  last  the  income  of  the 
Church  was  more  than  800,000/.  a  year.  To  remedy  these 
anomalies,  without  too  violently  disturbing  Protestant  sen- 


THE   CRY  OF  CONFISCATION  35 

timent  or  endangering  the  security  of  property,  was  the 
object  of  the  Ministerial  Bill.  It  was  proposed  to  destroy 
ten  of  the  bishoprics  by  consolidating  them  with  the  re- 
mainder. The  incomes  of  some  of  the  richer  sees  were 
curtailed,  and  the  surplus  thus  arising  was  to  be  handed 
over  to  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners.  The  '  annates,' or 
first-fruits  of  livings,  had  formerly  been  applied  in  relief 
of  the  '  Church  cess.'  Instead  of  these,  a  graduated  tax 
was  to  be  laid  on  all  livings,  and  with  the  money  thus  ac- 
cruing the  '  Church  cess '  was  to  be  extinguished.  The 
terms  on  which  lands  belonging  to  the  Church  were  let 
were  to  be  so  altered  as  to  improve  the  position  of  the 
tenant  without  injuring  the  clergy.  The  tenant,  it  was  cal- 
culated, would  be  willing  to  pay  for  this  advantage,  and 
the  sum  thus  gained  would  amount  to  something  between 
two  and  three  millions.  This  money  was  to  be  available 
for  purposes  of  State. 

As  soon  as  this  Bill  was  introduced  it  was  exposed  to  a 
double  and  treble  fire  of  criticism.  O'Connell  and  the 
Irish  party  scouted  the  relief,  which  consisted  only  in  the 
abolition  of  the  '  Church  cess.'  English  Radicals  declared 
that,  instead  of  twelve  Bishops,  the  Irish  Protestants  were 
not  numerous  enough  to  require  more  than  one,  or  at  the 
most  '  two,  to  keep  up  the  breed.'  The  Tories  raised  the 
cry  of  confiscation,  and  loudly  declared  that  all  property 
was  imperilled  by  the  Appropriation  Clause.  The  High 
Church  party  took  up  arms  to  withstand  what  they  regarded 
as  a  sacrilegious  attack  upon  a  Divine  institution.  Lord 
Grey,  who,  in  his  insolence  towards  the  Church,  was  a  Whig 
all  over,  had  told  the  Bishops  to  set  their  house  in  order. 
The  spoliation  begun  in  Ireland  might  soon  extend  to 
England.    The  saintly  Keble,  preaching  the  Assize  sermon 


36  MR.  GLADSTONE 

at    Oxford,    uttered    a   warning    note    against    'national 
apostasy.' 

The  young  member  for  Newark,  speaking  on  the  second 
reading  of  the  Bill,  faced  the  danger  with  a  courageous 
front.  He  would  not  shelter  himself,  he  said,  under  a 
silent  vote.  He  admitted  the  existence  of  abuses  in  the 
Irish  Establishment.  The  Church  had  slumbered,  but, 
since  the  Union,  had  awoke  to  a  new  life  and  fresh  energy. 
It  was  a  popular  cry  to  denounce  the  Irish  Church  on 
account  of  its  'wealth,'  but  poverty  was  no  guarantee  of 
efficiency.  The  churches  of  the  Vaudois  were  poor  enough, 
but  could  anyone  cite  them  as  models  of  practical  work  ? 
It  was  a  social  advantage  to  Ireland  that  in  every  parish 
there  should  be  an  educated  gentleman  and  a  Christian  by 
profession.  The  work  of  the  Church  was  not  aggressive : 
it  only  required  a  fair  opportunity  of  setting  forth  the  dis- 
tinctive doctrines  of  Protestantism.  He  could  not  support 
the  suppression  of  any  of  the  bishoprics,  for,  as  the  work 
and  usefulness  of  the  Church  increased,  there  would  be 
full  occupation  for  all  the  Bishops  of  the  existing  Estab- 
lishment. 

After  an  animated  debate.  Lord  Althorp  withdrew  the 
Appropriation  Clause,  which  asserted  the  only  important 
principle  of  the  Bill — i.e.  the  right  of  Parliament  to  apply 
ecclesiastical  property  to  the  uses  of  the  State — and  the 
Bill,  at  once  lightened  and  weakened,  passed  into  law  with- 
out further  opposition. 

In  the  following  Session,  Mr.  Hume,  the  radical  mem- 
ber for  Middlesex,  introduced  a  'Universities  Admission 
Bill,'  designed  to  enable  Nonconformists  of  all  kinds  to 
enter  the  Universities,  by  removing  the  necessity  of  sub- 
scribing the  Thirty-nine  Articles  at  matriculation.     Here 


RELIGIOUS   TESTS   AT  OXFORD  37 

Mr.  Gladstone  was  thoroughly  in  his  element.  In  defending 
slavery  he  had  spoken  from  his  father's  brief ;  in  defending 
the  Irish  Church  he  had  perforce  relied  on  impressive 
generalities.  But  in  a  question  affecting  the  religious 
character  and  discipline  of  the  Universities,  the  member 
for  Newark,  who  was  also  a  Student  of  Christ  Church, 
and  who  had  only  three  years  before  been  a  model  under- 
graduate, could  speak  with  the  full  authority  of  personal 
and  recent  knowledge.  His  foot,  as  Rob  Roy  says,  was  on 
his  native  heath.  It  was  an  excellent  opportunity  excellently 
used.  Mr.  Gladstone's  speech  in  reply  to  Mr,  Hume  was 
skilful  and  characteristic.  It  seems  that  Mr.  Hume,  having 
no  practical  acquaintance  with  the  Universities,  imagined 
that  if  the  Vice-Chancellor  were  no  longer  empowered  to 
demand  subscription  as  the  condition  of  matriculation,  all 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  admission  of  Dissenters  would 
vanish,  Mr.  Gladstone  reminded  him  that  this  was  not  so ; 
that  the  Vice-Chancellor  would  still  enquire  to  what  college 
the  candidate  for  matriculation  belonged,  and  the  colleges 
would  take  good  care  to  admit  no  one  who  would  not 
subscribe.  The  Bill  would  therefore  be  inoperative  so  far 
as  its  immediate  object  was  concerned ;  but  still  it  would 
lead  to  great  dissensions  and  confusion.  The  whole  system 
of  the  University  and  of  its  colleges,  both  in  study  and  in 
discipline,  aimed  at  the  formation  of  a  moral  character,  and 
that  aim  could  not  be  attained  if  every  student  were  at 
liberty  to  exclude  himself  from  the  religious  training  of  the 
place. 

One  point  which  Mr.  Gladstone  incidentally  makes 
speaks  volumes  for  the  life  which  he  had  lived  at  Oxford, 
and  the  kind  of  company  that  he  had  kept  there.  Lord 
Palmerston  had  expressed  a  reasonable  dislike  of  a  system 


38  MR.  GLADSTONE 

which  compelled  the  undergraduates  to  go  'from  wine  to 
prayers,  and  prayers  to  wine.'  But  Mr.  Gladstone  had  a 
better  opinion  of  the  undergraduates  who  had  so  lately 
been  his  companions.  He  did  not  believe  that  even  in  their 
most  convivial  7no?ne>its  they  were  luifit  to  enter  the  House  of 
Prayer.  Oxford  produces  few  men,  in  any  generation,  to 
whom  this  would  suggest  itself  as  a  possible  vindication  of 
compulsory  Chapel.^ 

From  a  perusal  of  these  speeches,  imperfectly  reported 
in  the  third  person,  and  from  contemporary  evidence,  it  is 
clear  that,  when  due  allowance  for  growth  and  development 
is  made,  Mr.  Gladstone's  early  style  of  oratory  was  pretty 
much  what  it  is  to-day.  His  voice  was  always  clear,  flexible, 
and  melodious,  though  his  utterance  was  marked  then, 
even  more  conspicuously  than  now,  by  a  Lancastrian 
'  burr ';  his  gesture  was  varied  and  animated,  but  not  violent. 
He  turned  his  face  and  body  from  side  to  side,  and  often 
wheeled  round  to  face  his  own  party  as  he  appealed  for 
their  cheers.  The  reports  of  his  speeches  in  the  Debating 
Society  at  Eton  prove  that,  even  in  his  earliest  days,  he  had 
an  immense  command  of  language.  Like  Mr.  Pitt,  he 
showed  '  a  premature  and  unnatural  dexterity  in  the  com- 
bination of  words,'  and  then,  as  now,  he  was  only  too 
fluent.  That  brevity  could  be  a  merit  in  composition  he 
seems  to  have  been  unaware,  for  he  expresses  ingenuous 
surprise  that  the  examiners  for  the  Ireland  scholarship 
at  Oxford  had  considered  it  a  merit  in  one  Brancker,  the 
winner,  that  he  answered  'all  the  questions  short.'  A 
reporter  who  had  professionally  experienced  his  fluency  on 
the  hustings  at  Newark  considered  him  quite  equal  to 
delivering  a  three-hours'  speech  to  the  mob.  His  style  of 
composition  was  redundant,  involved,  and  Johnsonese ;  and 


STYLE    OF   SPEAKING  39 

his  speeches  were  freely  garnished  with  Horatian  and  Vir- 
giHan  citations. 

If  his  early  style  of  public  speaking  resembled  his  later 
style  in  its  faults,  it  resembled  it -no  less  closely  in  its  char- 
acteristic excellences.  '  Did  you  ever  feel  nervous  in  public 
speaking  ?'  asked  an  eminent  man.  '  In  opening  a  subject, 
often,'  said  Mr.  Gladstone;  '/>/  reply,  never.^  A  critic  of 
public  men,  writing  in  1838,  remarks  that  Mr.  Gladstone 
displays  considerable  acuteness  in  replying  to  an  oppo- 
nent ;  he  is  quick  in  his  perception  of  anything  vulnerable 
in  the  speech  to  which  he  replies,  and  happy  in  laying  the 
weak  points  bare  to  the  House.  .  .  .  He  is  plausible,  even 
when  most  in  error.  When  it  suits  himself  or  his  party 
he  can  apply  himself  with  the  strictest  closeness  to  the 
real  points  at  issue ;  when  to  evade  the  point  is  deemed 
most  politic,  no  man  can  wander  from  it  more  widely.' 
Later  critics,  it  is  believed,  have  sometimes  made  a  similar 
observation. 

Meanwhile,  difficulties  were  thickening  round  the  Whig 
Government.  The  Reform  Act  had  not  produced  the  mil- 
lennium. Lord  Grey's  Cabinet  had  grievously  disappointed 
the  expectations  of  reformers.  Occupying  a  middle  posi- 
tion between  the  Tories  and  the  Radicals,  it  swayed  from 
time  to  time  in  each  direction,  and  of  course  satisfied  no 
one.  No  considerable  measure  of  the  Government  had  been 
passed  without  important  modifications.  Every  scheme 
which  they  propounded  bore  the  marks  of  compromise. 

While  the  friends  of  freedom  and  progress  were  dis- 
appointed by  the  slackness  and  indecision  of  the  Govern- 
ment, the  forces  of  tyranny,  discovering  with  joy  that  the 
Reform  Act  had  not,  after  all,  demolished  them,  took  heart 
of  grace,  and  rallied  themselves  for  a  struggle  to  regain 


40  MR.  GLADSTONE 

their  lost  ascendency.  '  Conservative  reaction '  became  an 
accepted  formula.  On  both  sides  the  Ministers  were  ex- 
posed to  damaging  criticism.  In  the  House  of  Lords  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  declared  that  their  foreign  policy  had 
not  produced  European  peace,  that  their  ecclesiastical  con- 
cessions had  done  no  good  in  Ireland,  and  that  they  did 
not  know  their  own  minds  about  the  renewal  of  the  Coer- 
cion Act.  On  the  other  hand,  at  great  public  meetings  in 
London  and  the  provincial  towns,  it  was  declared  that  the 
Whig  Government,  by  violating  the  Constitution  of  Ire- 
land, refusing  to  enquire  into  public  distress,  and  continu- 
ing obnoxious  taxation,  had  betrayed  the  confidence  of  the 
people. 

The  Trade  Unions,  which  had  hitherto  worked  in  iso- 
lation, now  combined  their  forces  and  threatened  the 
security  of  the  Government,  and  even,  as  it  would  seem, 
plotted  a  bodily  attack  upon  the  Home  Secretary.  The 
agricultural  labourers  rose  in  organized  opposition  to  their 
employers.  Everywhere  the  symptoms  of  discontent  were 
manifest,  and  the  Cabinet,  thus  beset  with  external  dan- 
gers, was  torn  asunder  by  internal  strife. 

Lord  Grey's  stock  of  Liberalism,  never  a  very  ample 
one,  had  been  exhausted  by  the  Reform  Bill.  He  was 
perpetually  harassed  and  disturbed  by  his  imperious  son- 
in-law,  Lord  Durham,  whose  fiery  temper  and  impetuous 
radicalism  would  be  satisfied  by  no  half  measures.  On  the 
other  hand,  Mr.  Stanley  had  a  passion  for  what  is  called 
'  Resolute  Government '  in  Ireland,  and  this  was  highly 
distasteful  to  the  prudent  and  conciliatory  temper  of  Lord 
Althorp.  A  proposal  of  the  Government  to  issue  a  Com- 
mission to  enquire  into  the  Irish  Church  and  the  redis- 
tribution of  its  revenues  was  so  abhorrent  to  the  more 


THE   KING  AND   LORD    MELBOURNE  4I 

conservative  members  of  the  Cabinet  that  it  led  to  the  re- 
signation of  Mr.  Stanley,  Sir  James  Graham,  the  Duke  of 
Richmond,  and  Lord  Ripon.  On  the  other  hand,  when 
it  became  necessary  to  renew  the  Coercion  Act,  a  sharp 
difference  of  opinion  arose  in  the  Cabinet  as  to  the  desir- 
ability of  renewing  those  clauses  which  provided  for  the 
suppression  of  Petition  and  the  establishment  of  martial 
law,  and  after  some  very  undignified  disclosures  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  Lord  Althorp,  who  had  favoured  the 
milder  course,  withdrew  from  office.  This  was  the  last 
straw.  Lord  Grey  immediately  resigned.  After  a  futile 
attempt  to  form  a  joint  Government  of  Whigs  and  moder- 
ate Tories,  the  former  Cabinet  was  reconstructed  under  the 
premiership  of  Lord  Melbourne.  But  another  crisis  was 
close  at  hand.  On  November  10  Lord  Spencer  died,  and 
the  accession  of  his  son.  Lord  Althorp,  to  the  peerage, 
made  a  vacancy  in  the  Leadership  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons^^.,,-^ 

The  King  was  at  Brighton.  Lord  Melbourne  waited 
on  him  there,  to  take  his  pleasure  as  to  the  new  arrange- 
ments which  Lord  Spencer's  death  had  rendered  necessar}^ 
He  submitted  a  choice  of  names  for  the  Chancellorship  of 
the  Exchequer  and  Leadership  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  King  took  time  to  consider.  Next  day  he  sent  for 
Lord  Melbourne  again,  and  handed  him  a  letter  announc- 
ing his  decision.  In  this  letter  the  King  stated  that,  having 
lost  the  services  of  Lord  Althorp  as  Leader  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  he  could  feel  no  confidence  in  the  stability  of 
his  Government  when  led  by  any  other  member  of  it ;  that 
they  were  already  in  a  minority  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
he  had  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  removal  of  Lord 
Althorp  would  speedily  put  them  in  the  same  situation  in 


42  MR.  GLADSTONE 

the  other  House ;  that  under  such  circumstances  he  felt 
other  arrangements  to  be  necessary;  and  that  it  was  his 
intention  to  send  for  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  Nothing 
could  be  more  peremptory  and  decisive.  The  King  had 
dismissed  his  Ministers.  The  event  had  an  interest  far 
beyond  its  immediate  consequences.  It  was  the  last  great 
act  of  royal  prerogative. 

The  dismissal  of  the  Whig  Ministers  threw  parties  and 
politicians  into  unspeakable  confusion.  No  one,  it  would 
seem,  was  less  prepared  for  it  than  the  Duke  of  W^elling- 
ton,  on  whom  the  King  laid  the  duty  of  carrying  on  his 
government.  The  Duke's  natural  affinities  were  with  the 
High  Tory  party,  but  he  had  sense  enough  to  perceive 
that  the  cautious  temper  and  moderate  opinions  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel  were  more  acceptable  to  the  country,  and 
would  form  an  indispensable  element  in  the  new  Admin- 
istration. Sir  Robert  had  gone  abroad  after  the  Session, 
and  was  now  in  Rome.  A  messenger  (who  lived  to  be 
famous  as  the  diplomatist  Sir  James  Hudson)  was  de- 
spatched to  bring  him  back.  His  return  was  awaited  with 
feverish  anxiety,  and  in  the  meantime  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton provisionally  undertook  the  offices  of  First  Lord  of  the 
Treasury,  Home  Secretary,  Foreign  Secretary,  and  Colo- 
nial Secretary.  Lord  Lyndhurst  became  Lord  Chancellor. 
The  conjuncture  was  interesting,  and  an  eye-witness  has 
described  it  with  admirable  skill : — 

It  was  a  lively  season,  that  winter  of  1834!  What  hopes, 
what  fears,  and  what  bets !  From  the  day  on  which  Mr.  Hud- 
son was  to  arrive  at  Rome  to  the  election  of  the  Speaker,  not 
a  contingency  that  was  not  the  subject  of  a  wager !  People 
sprang  up  like  mushrooms;  town  suddenly  became  full.  Ev- 
erybody who  had  been  in  office,  and  everybody  who  wished  to 


A  LIVELY  WINTER  43 

be  in  office  ;  everybody  who  had  ever  had  anything,  and  every- 
body who  ever  expected  to  have  anything,  were  alike  visible. 
All  of  course  by  mere  accident ;  one  might  meet  the  same 
men  regularly  every  day  for  a  month,  who  were  only  '  passing 
through  town.' 

Now  was  the  time  for  men  to  come  forward  who  had  never 
despaired  of  their  country.  True,  they  had  voted  for  the  Re- 
form Bill,  but  that  was  to  prevent  a  revolution.  And  now 
they  were  quite  ready  to  vote  against  the  Reform  Bill,  but  this 
was  to  prevent  a  dissolution.  These  are  the  true  patriots, 
whose  confidence  in  the  good  sense  of  their  countrymen  and 
in  their  own  selfishness  is  about  equal.  In  the  meantime,  the 
hundred  and  forty  threw  a  grim  glance  on  the  numerous  wait- 
ers on  Providence,  and  amiable  trimmers,  who  affectionately 
enquired  every  day  when  news  might  be  expected  of  Sir  Rob- 
ert. Though  too  weak  to  form  a  Government,  and  having 
contributed  in  no  wise  by  their  exertions  to  the  fall  of  the  late, 
the  cohort  of  parliamentary  Tories  felt  all  the  alarm  of  men 
who  have  accidentally  stumbled  on  some  treasure-trove,  at  the 
suspicious  sympathy  of  new  allies.  But,  after  all,  who  were  to 
form  the  Government,  and  what  was  the  Government  to  be  .'* 
Was  it  to  be  a  Tory  Government,  or  an  Enlightened-Spirit- 
of-the-Age  Liberal-Moderate-Reform  Government ;  was  it  to 
be  a  Government  of  high  philosophy  or  of  low  practice ;  of 
principle  or  of  expediency ;  of  great  measures  or  of  little  men  ? 
A  Government  of  statesmen  or  of  clerks  ?  Of  Humbug  or  of 
Humdrum  }  Great  questions  these,  but  unfortunately  there 
was  nobody  to  answer  them.  They  tried  the  Duke ;  but  noth- 
ing could  be  pumped  out  of  him.  All  that  he  knew,  which  he 
told  in  his  curt,  husky  manner,  was  that  he  had  to  carry  on 
the  King's  government.  As  for  his  solitary  colleague,  he  lis- 
tened and  smiled,  and  then  in  his  musical  voice  asked  them 
questions  in  return,  which  is  the  best  possible  mode  of  avoid- 
ing awkward  enquiries.  It  was  very  unfair  this ;  for  no  one 
knew  what  tone  to  take — whether  they  should  go  down  to 
their  public  dinners  and  denounce  the  Reform  Act  or  praise 
it ;  whether  the  Church  was  to  be  re-modelled  or  only  admon- 
ished ;  whether  Ireland  was  to  be  conquered  or  conciliated.  .  .  . 


44  MR.  GLADSTONE 

At  last  he  came ;  the  great  man  in  a  great  position,  sum- 
moned from  Rome  to  govern  England.  The  very  day  that  he 
arrived  he  had  his  audience  with  the  King. 

It  was  two  days  after  this  audience ;  the  town,  though 
November,  in  a  state  of  excitement ;  clubs  crowded,  not 
only  morning  -  rooms,  but  halls  and  staircases  swarming 
with  members  eager  to  give  and  to  receive  rumours  equal- 
ly vain ;  streets  lined  with  cabs  and  chariots,  grooms  and 
horses.  .  .  . 

Here  might  be  marked  a  murmuring  knot  of  grey-headed 
privy  councillors,  who  had  held  fat  offices  under  Perceval  and 
Liverpool,  and  who  looked  back  to  the  Reform  Act  as  to  a 
hideous  dream ;  there  some  middle-aged  aspirants  might  be 
observed  who  had  lost  their  seats  in  the  convulsion,  but  who 
flattered  themselves  they  had  done  something  for  the  party  in 
the  interval,  by  spending  nothing  except  their  breath  in  fight- 
ing hopeless  boroughs,  and  occasionally  publishing  a  pam- 
phlet, which  really  produced  less  effect  than  chalking  the 
walls.  Light  as  air,  and  proud  as  a  j^oung  peacock,  tripped  on 
his  toes  a  young  Tory,  who  had  contrived  to  keep  his  seat  in 
a  Parliament  where  he  had  done  nothing,  but  who  thought  an 
Under-Secretarj^ship  was  now  secure,  particularly  as  he  was 
the  son  of  a  noble  Lord  who  had  also  in  a  public  capacity 
plundered  and  blundered  in  the  good  old  time.  The  true  po- 
litical adventurer,  who  with  dull  desperation  had  stuck  at 
nothing,  had  never  neglected  a  Treasury  note,  had  been  pres- 
ent at  every  division,  never  spoke  when  he  was  asked  to  be 
silent,  and  was  always  ready  on  any  subject  when  they  wanted 
him  to  open  his  mouth — who  had  treated  his  leaders  with 
servility  even  behind  their  backs,  and  was  happy  for  the  day 
if  a  future  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  bowed  to  him ;  who  had 
not  only  discountenanced  discontent  in  the  party,  but  had 
regularly  reported  in  strict  confidence  every  instance  of  in- 
subordination which  came  to  his  knowledge  —  might  there, 
too,  be  detected  under  all  the  agonies  of  the  crisis ;  just  be- 
ginning to  feel  the  dread  misgiving  whether  being  a  slave  and 
a  sneak  were  sufficient  qualifications  for  office,  without  family 
or  connexion.     Poor  fellow  !  half  the  industry  he  had  wasted 


A   LORD   OF   THE   TREASURY  45 

on  his  cheerless  craft  might  have  made  his  fortune  in  some 
decent  trade ! 

In  dazzling  contrast  with  these  throes  of  low  ambition, 
were  some  brilliant  personages  who  had  just  scampered  up 
from  Melton,  thinking  it  probable  that  Sir  Robert  might  want 
some  moral  lords  of  the  bedchamber.  Whatever  may  have 
been  their  private  fears  or  feelings,  all,  however,  seemed  smil- 
ing and  significant,  as  if  they  knew  something  if  they  chose 
to  tell  it,  and  that  something  very  much  to  their  own  satis- 
faction. The  only  grave  countenance  that  was  occasionally 
ushered  into  the  room  belonged  to  some  individual  whose 
destiny  was  not  in  doubt,  and  who  was  already  practising  the 
official  air  that  was  in  future  to  repress  the  familiarity  of  his 
former  fellow-strugsflers. 


In  the  scramble  for  offices,  so  delightfully  described  by 
Lord  Beaconsfielcl  in  the  foregoing  pages,  there  was  one 
result  which  was  inevitable.  Mr.  Gladstone  must  be  a 
member  of  the  new  Government.  When  a  Prime  Minister 
in  difficulties,  looking  about  for  men  to  fill  the  minor  offices 
of  his  Administration,  sees  among  his  supporters  a  clever 
and  comely  young  man,  eloquent  in  speech,  ready  in  de- 
bate, with  a  safe  seat,  an  ample  fortune,  a  high  reputation 
at  the  University,  and  a  father  who  wields  political  influ- 
ence in  an  important  constituency,  he  sees  a  jimior  Lord 
of  the  Treasury  made  ready  to  his  hand. 

On  Christmas  Eve,  Mr.  Gladstone,  having  accepted 
office,  issued  his  address  to  the  electors  of  Newark.  This 
document  was,  as  it  was  bound  to  be,  an  echo  of  the 
manifesto  which  Sir  Robert  Peel  had  addressed  to  the 
electors  of  Tamworth.  Sir  Robert  had  declared  that  the 
Reform  Act  was  a  final  and  irrevocable  settlement  of  a 
great  constitutional  question,  and  a  settlement  which  no 
friend  to    the  peace  and  welfare    of  the   country  would 


46  MR.   GLADSTONE 

attempt  to  disturb.  But  he  expressed  the  readiness  of 
the  Government  to  reform  real  abuses  and  defects,  though 
they  decHned  to  seek  '  a  false  popularity  by  adopting  every 
popular  impression  of  the  day.' 

In  the  same  strain  Mr.  Gladstone  told  the  electors  of 
Newark  that  the  best  friends  of  the  late  Ministry  had  been 
alienated  from  it  by  its  tendency  to  rash,  violent,  and 
indefinite  innovation,  and  that  there  were  even  '  those 
among  the  servants  of  the  King  who  did  not  scruple  to 
solicit  the  suffrages  of  their  constituents  with  promises  to 
act  on  the  principles  of  Radicalism.'  Mr.  Gladstone  went 
on  to  say :  '  The  question  has  then,  as  it  appears  to  me, 
become,  whether  we  are  to  hurry  onwards  at  intervals,  but 
not  long  ones,  through  the  medium  of  the  ballot,  short 
Parliaments,  and  other  questions  called  popular,  into  re- 
publicanism or  anarchy ;  or  whether,  independently  of  all 
party  distinction,  the  people  will  support  the  Crown  in  the 
discharge  of  its  duty  to  maintain  in  efficiency  and  transmit 
in  safety  those  old  and  valuable  institutions  under  which 
our  country  has  greatly  flourished.  .  .  .  Let  me  add  shortly, 
but  emphatically,  concerning  the  reform  of  actual  abuses, 
whether  in  Church  or  State,  that  I  regard  it  as  a  sacred 
duty — a  duty  at  all  times,  and  certainly  not  least  at  a  pe- 
riod like  this,  when  the  danger  of  neglecting  it  is  most  clear 
and  imminent — a  duty  not  inimical  to  true  and  determined 
Conservative  principle,  nor  a  curtailment  or  modification 
of  such  principle,  but  its  legitimate  consequence,  or  rather 
an  actual  element  of  its  composition.' 

Parliament  was  dissolved  on  December  29.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone was  returned  unopposed,  this  time  in  conjunction 
with  the  Liberal  lawyer  whom  he  had  beaten  at  the  last 
election.     The  new  Parliament  met  on  February  19,  1835. 


A   BACHELOR   IN   THE   ALBANY  47 

The  elections  had  given  the  Liberals  a  considerable  ma- 
jority. The  old  House  of  Commons  had  been  burnt  down 
during  the  recess.  It  was,  perhaps,  a  parable  of  actual 
and  impending  changes  that  the  Commons  now  assembled 
in  the  chamber  which  had  been  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
that  for  the  first  time  there  was  a  gallery  for  reporters  in 
the  House.  A  standing  order  still  existed  which  forbade 
the  publication  of  the  debates,  but  the  reporters'  gallery 
was  a  formal  and  visible  recognition  of  the  people's  right  to 
know  what  their  representatives  were  doing  in  their  name. 

Immediately  after  the  meeting  of  Parliament,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone was  promoted  from  his  post  at  the  Treasury  to  the 
Under-Secretaryship  for  the  Colonies.  His  official  chief 
was  Lord  Aberdeen,  and  thus  began  a  relation  which  was 
destined  to  affect  momentously  the  careers  both  of  the 
younger  and  of  the  older  statesman.  Both  in  the  House 
and  in  his  office  the  new  Under-Secretary  gave  proof  of 
his  great  capacity  and  untiring  energies.  But  the  Admin- 
istration was  not  long-lived.  On  March  30,  Lord  John 
Russell  moved  his  resolution  in  favour  of  an  enquiry  into 
the  temporalities  of  the  Irish  Church,  with  the  intention 
of  applying  any  surplus  to  general  education  without  dis- 
tinction of  religious  creed.  This  was  in  fact  a  revival  of 
the  abandoned  'Appropriation  Clause,'  and  it  was  carried 
against  Ministers  by  a  majority  of  thirty-three.  On  April 
8,  Sir  Robert  Peel  resigned,  and  the  Under-Secretary  for 
the  Colonies  of  course  followed  his  chief  into  private  life. 

Released  from  the  labours  of  office,  Mr.  Gladstone  was 
free  to  follow  the  bent  of  his  own  inclinations,  and  to  or- 
der his  life  according  to  his  own  ideals.  Living  in  cham- 
bers in  the  Albany,  he  pursued  the  same  even  course  of 
steady  work,  reasonable  recreation,  and  systematic  devo- 


48  MR.  GLADSTONE 

tion,  which  he  had  marked  out  for  himself  at  Oxford.  He 
went  freely  into  society,  dined  out  constantly,  and  took  his 
part  in  musical  parties,  delighting  his  hearers  with  the  cul- 
tivated beauty  of  his  tenor  voice.  Mr.  Monckton  Milnes 
had  now  established  himself  in  London,  and  gathered 
round  him  a  society  of  young  men  who  were  interested  in 
theology  and  politics.  He  used  to  entertain  them  at  par- 
ties on  Sunday  evenings,  and  this  arrangement,  he  says, 
writing  on  March  13,  1838,  'unfortunately  excludes  the 
more  serious  members,  Acland,  Gladstone,  &c.  I  really 
think  when  people  keep  Friday  as  a  fast,  they  might  make 
a  feast  of  Sunday.'  Mr.  Gladstone  used  to  receive  his 
friends  at  his  rooms  in  the  Albany,  and  on  one  occasion 
entertained  Mr.  Wordsworth  at  breakfast  in  a  charmed 
circle  of  young  adorers. 

But,  though  he  found  time  for  occasional  relaxation, 
his  days  were  divided  between  his  parliamentary  duties 
and  study.  Then,  as  now,  his  constant  companions  were 
Homer  and  Dante,  and  it  is  recorded  that  at  this  time  he 
read  the  whole  of  St.  Augustine,  in  twenty-two  octavo  vol- 
umes. He  was,  as  always,  a  diligent  attendant  on,  and  a 
careful  critic  of,  preaching,  and  used  to  frequent  the  serv- 
ices at  St.  James's,  Piccadilly,  and  Margaret  Chapel,  since 
better  known  as  All  Saints',  Margaret  Street. .  At  the 
same  time  he  threw  himself  with  diligence  into  the  duties 
of  a  private  member,  working  freely  on  committees,  and 
taking  constant  part  in  debate.  In  1836  he  spoke  with  his 
habitual  animation  in  defence  of  the  East  Indian  planters, 
and  of  the  system  of  apprenticeship  which  had  taken  the 
place  of  slavery.  He  spoke  also  on  the  government  of 
Canada,  strongly  supporting  the  cause  of  authority  and 
order ;  and  at  great  length  on  Church  Rates,  perorating  in 


A  friend's  exhortation  49 

a  most  impressive  vein  on  the  necessity  of  national  re- 
ligion to  the  security  of  a  State. 

On  June  20,  1S37,  King  William  IV,  died;  and  Parlia- 
ment, having  been  prorogued  by  the  young  Queen  in  person, 
was  dissolved  on  the  i7th  of  the  following  month.  Simply 
on  the  strength  of  his  parliamentary  reputation,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone was  nominated,  without  his  consent,  for  Manchester, 
and  was  placed  at  the  bottom  of  the  poll;  but,  having  been 
at  the  same  time  nominated  at  Newark,  was  again  returned. 
On  August  II,  wearied  with  electioneering,  he  turned  his 
steps  to  Scotland,  '  to  see  what  grouse  he  could  persuade 
into  his  bag.'  The  new  Parliament  met  on  October  20, 
but  no  business  of  importance  was  transacted  till  after  the 
Christmas  recess.  In  1838  Mr.  Gladstone  returned  again 
and  again  to  the  championship  of  the  planters,  each  time 
with  increasing  power  and  success.  His  impassioned 
speech  of  March  30  may  be  regarded  as  having  placed 
him  high  among  parliamentary  debaters. 

On  April  20,  183S,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Wilberforce,  after- 
wards Bishop  of  Oxford,  and  of  Winchester,  wrote  thus  to 
Mr.  Gladstone :  '  It  would  be  an  affectation  in  you,  which 
you  are  above,  not  to  know  that  few  young  men  have  the 
weight  you  have  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  are  gain- 
ing rapidly  throughout  the  country.  Now  I  do  not  wish  to 
urge  you  to  consider  this  as  a  talent  for  the  use  of  which 
you  must  render  an  account,  for  so  I  know  you  do  esteem 
it,  but  what  I  want  to  urge  upon  you  is  that  you  should 
calmly  look  far  before  you  ;  see  the  degree  of  weight  and 
influence  to  which  you  may  fairly,  if  God  spares  your 
life  and  powers,  look  forward  in  future  years,  and  thus  act 
now  with  a  view  to  then.  There  is  no  height  to  which  you 
may  not  fairly  rise  in  this  country.  If  it  pleases  God  to 
4 


50  MR.  GLADSTONE 

spare  us  violent  convulsions  and  the  loss  of  our  liberties, 
you  may  at  a  future  day  wield  the  whole  government  of  this 
land ;  and  if  this  should  be  so,  of  what  extreme  moment 
will  your  past  steps  then  be  to  the  real  usefulness  of  your 
high  station.  If  there  has  been  any  compromise  of  prin- 
ciple before,  you  will  not  then  be  able  to  rise  above  it ;  but 
if  all  your  steps  have  been  equal,  you  will  not  then  be  ex- 
pected to  descend  below  them.  I  say  this  to  you  in  the 
sad  conviction  that  almost  all  our  public  men  act  from  the 
merest  expediency ;  and  that  from  this  conventional  stand- 
ard it  must  be  most  difficult  for  one  living  and  acting 
amongst  them  to  keep  himself  clear;  and  yet  from  the 
conviction,  too,  that  as  yet  you  are  wholly  uncommitted  to 
any  low  principles  of  thought  or  action.  I  would  have  you 
view  yourself  as  one  who  may  become  the  head  of  all  the 
better  feelings  of  this  country,  the  maintainer  of  its  Church 
and  of  its  liberties,  and  who  must  now  be  fitting  himself 
for  this  high  vocation.  Suffer  me  to  add,  what  I  think  my 
father's  life  so  beautifully  shows,  that  a  deep  and  increas- 
ing personal  religion  must  be  the  root  of  that  firm  and  un- 
wearied consistency  in  right,  which  I  have  ventured  thus 
to  press  upon  you.  May  you  in  another  walk,  and  in  still 
higher  opportunities  of  service,  as  perfectly  illustrate  the 
undoubted  truth  that  those,  who  honour  Him,  He  will 
honour.' 

To  this  letter  Mr.  Gladstone  replied :  '  I  fear  entering 
on  the  subject  to  which  you  have  given  the  chief  part  of 
your  letter,  because  I  know  how  large  it  is,  and  how  op- 
pressive, how  all  but  intolerably  oppressive,  are  the  con- 
siderations with  which  it  is  connected.  I  have  not  to 
charge  myself  inwardly  with  having  been  used  to  look  for- 
ward along  the  avenues  of  life  rarely  or  neglectfully ;  but 


FOREBODING  5 1 

rather  with  that  weakness  of  faith,  and  that  shrinking  of 
the  flesh,  of  which  at  every  moment  I  am  mournfully  con- 
scious, but  most  so  when  I  attempt  to  estimate  or  conject- 
ure our  probable  public  destinies  during  the  term  to  which 
our  natural  lives  may  extend — a  prospect  which  I  confess 
fills  me  with  despondency  and  alarm. 

'  Not  that  these  feelings  are  vuimixed  :  they  are  tem- 
pered even  as  regards  the  period  of  which  I  speak  with  the 
confident  anticipations  of  new  developments  of  religious 
power  which  have  been  forgotten  in  the  day  of  insidious 
prosperity,  and  seem  to  be  providentially  reserved  for  the 
time  of  our  need,  for  the  swelling  of  Jordan  ;  and  of  course 
there  lies  beyond  that  period,  for  those  who  are  appointed 
to  it,  a  haven  of  perfect  rest ;  but  still  the  coming  years 
bear  to  ray  view  an  aspect  of  gloom  for  the  country — not 
for  the  Church  ;  she  is  the  land  of  Goshen.  Looking,  how- 
ever, to  the  former,  to  the  State  as  such,  and  to  those  who 
belong  to  it  as  citizens,  I  seem  unable  to  discern  resources 
bearing  a  just  proportion  to  her  dangers  and  necessities. 
While  the  art  of  politics  from  day  to  day  embraces  more 
and  more  vital  questions,  and  enters  into  closer  relations 
with  the  characters  and  therefore  the  destinies  of  men, 
there  is,  I  fear,  a  falling  away  in  the  intellectual  stature  of 
the  generation  of  men  whose  office  it  is  to  exercise  that  art 
for  good.  While  public  men  are  called  by  the  exigencies 
of  their  position  to  do  more  and  more,  there  seems  to  be 
in  the  accumulation  of  business,  the  bewildering  multipli- 
cation of  details,  an  indication  of  their  probable  capacity 
to  do  less  and  less.  The  principles  of  civil  government 
have  decayed  amongst  us  as  much,  I  suspect,  as  those 
which  are  ecclesiastical ;  and  one  does  not  see  an  equally 
ready  or  sure  provision  for  their  revival.     One  sees  in 


52  MR.  GLADSTONE 

actual  existence  the  apparatus  by  which  our  institutions 
are  to  be  threatened,  and  the  very  groundwork  of  the  na- 
tional character  to  be  broken  up  ;  but  upon  the  other  hand, 
if  we  look  around  for  the  masses  of  principle,  I  mean  of 
enlightened  principle,  blended  witli  courage  and  devotion, 
which  are  the  human  means  of  resistance,  these  I  feel  have 
yet  to  be  organized,  almost  to  be  created.' 


CHAPTER   III 

Religious  opinions — Book  on  Cluirch  and  State — Marriage — Becomes 
Vice-President  of  the  Board  of  Trade — Admitted  to  the  Cabinet — 
Resigns. 

This  year — 1838 — claims  special  note  in  a  record  of  Mr. 
Gladstone's  life,  because  it  witnessed  the  appearance  of 
his  famous  work  on  '  The  State  in  its  Relations  with  the 
Church.'  We  have  seen  that  he  left  Oxford  before  the 
beginning  of  that  Catholic  revival  which  has  transfigured 
both  the  inner  spirit  and  the  outward  aspect  of  the  Church 
of  England.  But  the  revival  was  now  in  full  strength. 
The  astonishing  genius  of  Mr.  Newman  had  begun  to  op- 
erate. The  '  Tracts  for  the  Times '  were  saturating  England 
with  new  influences.  The  passionate,  almost  despairing, 
appeal  of  half-a-dozen  gifted  and  holy  men  at  Oxford  had 
awoke  a  response  in  every  corner  of  the  kingdom.  '  We 
did,'  they  said,  '  but  light  a  beacon  fire  on  the  summit  of  a 
lonely  hill :  and  now  we  are  amazed  to  find  the  firmament 
on  every  side  red  with  the  light  of  some  responsive  flame.' 
The  Catholic  revival  now  counted  no  more  enthusiastic 
or  more  valuable  disciple  than  the  young  member  for 
Newark.  The  influence  of  the  revival  had  reached  him 
through  his  friendships,  notably  with  Mr.  James  Hope, 
Fellow  of  Merton,  afterwards  Mr.  Hope-Scott,  Q.C.,  and 
with  the  Rev.  H.  E.  Manning,  now  Cardinal-Archbishop. 


54  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Cardinal  Newman,  organizing  the  crusade  and  reckon- 
ing up  his  actual  and  possible  allies,  writes  on  October  2, 
1833  :  'As  to  Gladstone,  perhaps  it  would  be  wrong  to  ask 
a  young  man  so  to  commit  himself.'  But  on  November  13, 
he  records  :  '  The  Duke  of  Newcastle  has  joined  us  ...  . 
Gladstone,  &c.  I  suppose  these  names  must  not  be  men- 
tioned.' 

Naturally  and  profoundly  religious,  and  now  steeped  in 
the  Catholic  theology,  Mr.  Gladstone  conceived  that  those 
who  professed  the  warmest  regard  for  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, and  posed  as  her  most  strenuous  defenders,  were  in- 
clined to  base  their  championship  on  mistaken  grounds, 
and  to  direct  their  efforts  towards  even  mischievous  ends. 
To  supply  a  more  reasonable  basis  for  action,  and  to  lead 
this  energy  into  more  profitable  channels,  were  the  objects 
which  he  proposed  to  himself  in  his  treatise  of  1838.  The 
distinctive  principle  of  the  book  was  that  the  State  had  a 
conscience.  This  being  admitted,  the  issue  was  this : 
whether  the  State,  in  its  best  condition,  has  such  a  con- 
science as  can  take  cognizance  of  religious  truth  and  error, 
and  in  particular  whether  the  State  of  the  United  Kingdom 
at  that  time  was,  or  was  not,  so  far  in  that  condition  as  to 
be  under  an  obligation  to  give  an  active  and  an  exclusive 
support  to  the  established  religion  of  the  country.  The 
work  attempted  to  survey  the  actual  state  of  the  relations 
between  the  State  and  the  Church ;  to  show  from  history 
the  ground  which  had  been  defined  for  the  National 
Church  at  the  Reformation  ;  and  to  enquire  and  determine 
whether  the  existing  state  of  things  was  worth  preserving 
and  defending  against  encroachment  from  whatever  quarter. 
This  question  it  decided  emphatically  in  the  affirmative. 
Faithful  to  logic  and  to  its  theory,  the  book  did  not  shrink 


RELIGION   AND   THE    STATE  55 

from  applying  them  to  the  crucial  case  of  the  Irish  Church. 
It  did  not  disguise  the  difficulties  of  the  case,  for  the  author' 
was  alive  to  the  paradox  which  it  involved.  But  the  one 
master  idea  of  the  system,  that  the  State  as  it  then  stood 
was  capable  in  this  age,  as  it  had  been  in  ages  long  gone 
by,  of  assuming  beneficially  a  responsibility  for  the  inculca- 
tion of  a  particular  religion,  carried  him  through  all.  His 
doctrine  was,  that  the  Church,  as  established  by  law,  was 
to  be  maintained  for  its  truth ;  that  this  was  the  only 
principle  on  which  it  could  be  properly  and  permanently 
upheld ;  that  this  principle,  if  good  in  England,  was  good 
also  for  Ireland ;  that  truth  is  of  all  possessions  the  most 
precious  to  the  soul  of  man ;  and  that  to  '  remove  this 
priceless  treasure  from  the  view  and  the  reach  of  the  Irish 
people,  would  be  meanly  to  purchase  their  momentary  fa- 
vour at  the  expense  of  their  permanent  interests,  and  would 
be  a  high  offence  against  our  own  sacred  obligations.' 

In  the  task  of  bringing  out  the  book,  Mr.  Gladstone 
derived  great  assistance  from  his  friend  Mr.  Hope,  who 
read  and  criticized  the  manuscript,  and  saw  the  sheets 
through  the  press.  The  following  letters  refer  to  this  act 
of  friendship : — 

IV.  E.  Gladstone,  Esq.,  M.P.,  to  J.  R.  Hope,  Esq. 

House  of  Commons:  July  i8,  1838. 

I  hope  in  a  day  or  two  to  get  my  colonial  information 
sufficiently  in  form,  and  then  to  send  you  my  whole  papers. 
If  you  let  them  lie  just  as  they  are,  turning  the  leaves  one  by 
one,  I  think  you  will  not  find  the  manuscript  very  difficult  to 
make  out,  though  it  is  strangely  cut  in  pieces  and  patched.  I 
have  divided  it  all  through  into  sectitmcules,  occupying  gen- 
erally from  half  a  page  to  a  whole  one. 

I  hope  that  its  general  tendency  will  meet  your  approval ; 


56  MR.  GLADSTONE 

but  a  point  about  which  I  am  in  great  doubt,  and  to  which  I 
request  your  particular  attention  is,  whether  either  the  work 
or  some  of  the  chapters  are  not  so  deficient  in  clearness  and 
arrangement  as  to  require  being  absolutely  re-written  before 
they  can  with  propriety  be  published  ?  Making  allowance  for 
any  obscurity  which  may  arise  from  its  physical  state  as  a 
MS.,  I  hope  you  will  look  vigorously  at  it  in  this  point  of 
view,  and  tell  me  what  you  think  is  the  amount  of  the  disease, 
and  the  proper  kind  of  remedy.  I  can  excuse  myself,  con- 
sidering the  pressure  of  other  engagements,  for  having  written 
irregularly  and  confusedly  upon  a  subject  very  new  in  many 
of  its  parts,  and  requiring  some  abstraction — (at  every  turn  it 
has  brought  home  the  truth  of  Bacon's  observation,  that  pol- 
itics are  of  all  sciences  the  most  immersed  in  matter.  One 
has  to  go  on  detaching  as  it  were  one's  soul  from  clay  all  the 
way  through) — but  I  should  be  inexcusable  if  I  were  to  publish 
in  such  a  state :  between  my  eyes  and  my  business  I  fear  it 
would  be  hard  for  me  to  re-write,  but  if  I  could  put  it  into  the 
hands  of  any  other  person  who  could,  and  who  would  extract 
from  my  papers  anything  worth  having,  that  might  do.  I 
wish  very  much  that  something  should  be  published  by  some- 
body on  the  subject,  and  that  speedily,  to  begin  to  draw  atten- 
tion to  a  subject,  on  which  men's  minds  are  so  sadly  undisci- 
plined.   When  set  in  motion,  the  ball  will  roll,  as  I  anticipate. 

As  regards  myself,  if  I  go  on  and  publish,  I  shall  be  quite 
prepared  to  find  some  persons  surprised,  but  this,  if  it  should 
prove  so,  cannot  be  helped  ;  I  have  not  knowingly  exagger- 
ated anything;  and  when  a  man  expects  to  be  washed  over- 
board, he  must  tie  himself  with  a  rope  to  the  mast. 

I  shall  trust  to  your  friendship  for  frankness  in  the  dis- 
charge of  your  irksome  task.  Pray  make  verbal  corrections 
without  scruple  where  they  are  needed. — Sincerely  yours, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 

July  21,  1838. 
My  dear  Hope, — Behold  your  rashness  ! 
Please  read  Nos.  II.,  V.,  and  VI.  first.     These,  with  VIII., 
are,  I  think,  the  most  important,  and  it  is  about  these  that  I 


AN   AUTHOR'S   PERPLEXITIES  57 

am  in  great  fear  and  doubt  whether  they  may  not  require  re- 
writing ;  as,  however,  we  read  that  chopping  old  somebody 
made  him  young,  I  have  some  hope  for  my  unfortunate  papers, 
which  you  will  find  have  pretty  well  undergone  that  operation. 
Mind  to  turn  the  leaves  as  they  lie. — Ever  yours, 

W.  E.  G. 

Jnly  26,  183S. 

My  dear  Hope, — I  thank  you  most  cordially  for  your  re- 
marks, and  I  rejoice  to  find  that  you  act  so  entirely  in  the 
spirit  I  had  anticipated.  I  trust  you  will  continue  to  speak 
with  freedom,  which  is  the  best  compliment  as  well  as  the 
best  service  you  can  render  me. 

I  am  now  likely  not  to  go  to  Ems,  but  to  have  some  weeks 
in  this  country,  which  I  should  wish  to  employ  without  any 
loss  of  time  in  going  to  work  as  you  direct.  ...  As  I  said 
before,  I  think  it  very  probable  that  you  may  find  that  V.  and 
VI.  require  quite  as  rigorous  treatment  as  II.,  and  I  am  very 
desirous  to  set  both  my  mind  and  eyes  at  liberty  before  I  go 
to  the  Continent,  which  I  can  now  hardly  expect  to  do  before 
the  first  week  ii^  September.  This  interval  I  trust  would  suf- 
fice— unless  you  find  that  the  other  chapters  stand  in  equal 
need. 

Mahon  suggested  as  a  title  :  '  Church  and  State  considered 
in  their  connexion.'  The  defect  of  this  is  that  I  do  not  much 
consider  the  Church  in  its  connexion  with  the  State,  though 
partially  I  do ;  but  it  gave  me  the  idea  of  a  modification  which 
I  think  may  do  :  '  The  State  viewed  in  its  connexion  with 
the  Church.' 

I  entirely  concur  with  your  view  regarding  the  necessity 
of  care,  and  of  not  grudging  labour  in  a  matter  so  important 
and  so  responsible  as  an  endeavour  to  raise  one  of  the  most 
momentous  controversies  which  has  ever  agitated  human 
opinion.  Sincerely  yours, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 

July  30. 
My  dear  Hope, — Thanks  for  your  letter.     I  have  been 
pretty  hard  at  work,  and  have  done  a  good  deal,  especially 


58  MR.  GLADSTONE 

on  V,  Something  yet  remains.  I  must  make  enquiry  about 
the  law  of  excommunication  ...  I  have  made  a  very  stupid 
classification,  and  have  now  amended  it;  instead  of  faith, 
discipline,  and  practice,  what  I  meant  was,  the  rule  of  faith, 
discipline,  and  the  bearing  of  particular  doctrines  upon  prac- 
tice. .  .  . 

Yours  sincerely, 

W.  E.  G. 

I  send  back  also  I.  and  II.  that  you  may  see  what  I  have 
done. 

But  in  spite  of  various  obstacles,  the  work  was  brought 
to  a  successful  issue  in  the  following  autumn.  Lord 
Houghton  used  to  say  that  Sir  Robert  Peel,  on  receiving 
a  copy  as  a  gift  from  his  young  follower,  exclaimed  with 
truly  official  horror :  '  With  such  a  career  before  him,  why 
should  he  write  books  ?'  But  more  emotional  people  took 
a  very  different  view. 

Writing  on  December  13,  1838,  Baron  Bunsen  says : 
'  Last  night  at  eleven,  when  I  came  from  the  Duke,  Glad- 
stone's book  was  lying  on  my  table,  having  come  out  at 
seven  o'clock.  It  is  the  book  of  the  time,  a  great  event — 
the  first  book  since  Burke  that  goes  to  the  bottom  of  the 
vital  question  ;  far  above  his  party  and  his  time.  I  sat  up 
till  after  midnight,  and  this  morning  I  continued  until  I 
had  read  the  whole.  .  .  .  Gladstone  is  the  first  man  in  Eng- 
land as  to  intellectual  power,  and  he  has  heard  higher 
tones  than  anyone  else  in  this  land.' 

Writing  a  few  days  later  to  Dr.  Arnold,  the  Baron  again 
extols  the  book,  and,  while  lamenting  what  he  conceives 
to  be  its  author's  entanglement  in  Tractarian  traditions, 
adds :  '  His  genius  will  soon  free  itself  entirely,  and  fly 
towards  Heaven  with  its  own  winjjs.' 


THE   RISING    HOPE  59 

On  January  9,  1839,  Cardinal  Newman  writes:  'Glad- 
stone's book,  you  see,  is  making  a  sensation.'  On  the 
22nd,  'The  "Times"  is  again  at  poor  Gladstone.  Really 
I  feel  as  if  I  could  do  anything  for  him.  I  have  not  read 
his  book,  but  its  consequences  speak  for  it.  Poor  fellow ! 
it  is  so  noble  a  thing.' 

The  book  soon  reached  a  third  edition,  and  drew  from 
Lord  Macaulay  that  trenchant  review  in  which  Mr.  Glad- 
stone was  described,  for  the  infinite  gratification  of  later 
critics,  as  the  'rising  hope  of  the  stern  and  unbending 
Tories.'  There  ensued  some  correspondence  between  the 
young  author  and  his  distinguished  reviewer,  who,  writing 
to  him  on  April  11,  1839,  said:  'Your  book  itself,  and 
everything  that  I  heard  about  you,  though  almost  all  my 
information  came — to  the  honour,  I  must  say,  of  our  trou- 
bled times — from  people  very  strongly  opposed  to  you  in 
politics,  led  me  to  regard  you  with  respect  and  goodwill, 
and  I  am  truly  glad  that  I  have  succeeded  in  marking 
those  feelings.'  Meanwhile  the  author's  eyesight  had  been 
impaired  by  hard  reading.  He  had  eschewed  lamps  and 
read  entirely  by  candle-light,  and  the  result  was  injurious. 
The  doctors  recommended  him  to  make  a  tour  in  the  South 
of  Europe,  and  he  spent  the  winter  in  Rome.  In  the  Eter- 
nal City  he  joined  his  friend,  Mr.  Henry  Manning,  and 
together  they  visited  Monsignor  (afterwards  Cardinal) 
Wiseman  at  the  English  College,  on  the  Feast  of  the  Mar- 
tyrdom of  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury.  They  attended  a 
solemn  Mass  in  honour  of  the  saint,  and  their  places  in  the 
missal  were  fovmd  for  them  by  a  young  student  of  the  col- 
lege called  Grant,  who  afterwards  became  Bishop  of  South- 
wark ;  a  curious  conjunction  of  names  destined  to  become 
famous.    Among  the  visitors  at  Rome  that  winter  were  the 


6o  MR.  GLADSTONE 

widow  and  daughters  of  Sir  Stephen  Richard  Glynne,  of 
Hawarden  Castle,  Flintshire.  Mr.  Gladstone  was  already 
acquainted  with  these  ladies,  having  been  a  friend  of  Lady 
Glynne's  eldest  son  at  Oxford,  and  having  visited  him  at 
Hawarden  in  1835.  The  visit  to  Rome  threw  him  much 
into  their  society,  and  he  became  engaged  to  the  elder  of 
Lady  Glynne's  daughters.  On  July  25, 1839,  he  was  married 
at  Hawarden  to  Miss  Catherine  Glynne,  sister,  and  in  her 
issue  heir,  of  Sir  Stephen  Glynne,  ninth  and  last  baronet  of 
that  name.  At  the  same  time  and  place,  Miss  Mary  Glynne 
was  married  to  George  William,  fourth  Lord  Lyttelton. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  by  his  marriage  Mr.  Gladstone 
became  allied  with  the  house  of  Grenville,  a  family  of 
statesmen  which,  directly  or  in  its  ramifications,  had  al- 
ready supplied  England  with  four  Prime  Ministers.  Baron 
Bunsen,  who  made  his  acquaintance  that  year,  writes  that 
he  'was  delighted  with  the  man  who  is  some  day  to  govern 
England  if  his  book  is  not  in  his  way.'  During  the  earlier 
part  of  their  married  life  Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  Gladstone 
lived  with  Sir  Thomas  Gladstone  at  6  Carlton  Gardens. 
Later  they  lived  at  13  Carlton  House  Terrace,  and,  when 
Mr.  Gladstone  was  in  office,  occupied  an  official  residence 
in  Downing  Street.  In  1856  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded to  his  patrimony  five  years  before,  bought  1 1  Carl- 
ton House  Terrace,  which  was  his  London  house  for  twen- 
ty years ;  and  he  subsequently  lived  for  four  years  at  73 
Harley  Street.  During  the  parliamentary  recess,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Gladstone  divided  their  time  between  Fasque,  Sir 
John  Gladstone's  seat  in  Kincardineshire,  and  Hawarden 
Castle,  which  they  shared  with  Mrs.  Gladstone's  brother, 
Sir  Stephen  Glynne,  till,  on  his  death,  it  passed  into  their 
sole  possession. 


MARRIAGE   AND    MARRIED    LIFE  6 1 

Marriage  and  domestic  cares  (for  the  blessings  of  the 
man  who  hath  his  quiver  full  were  not  long  withheld  from 
him)  made  little  difference  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  mode  of  life. 
He  was  still  the  diligent  student,  the  constant  debater,  and 
the  copious  writer  that  he  had  been  at  Eton,  at  Oxford,  and 
in  the  Albany.  He  was  one  of  a  committee  which  met  at 
the  lodgings  of  Mr.  (now  Sir  Thomas)  Acland,  in  Jermyn 
Street,  to  concert  measures  for  improving  and  extending 
the  educational  machinery  of  the  Church.  Among  the 
members  of  this  committee  were  Lord  Ashley,  afterwards 
Lord  Shaftesbury,  Lord  Sandon,  afterwards  Lord  Harrow- 
by,  Winthrop  Mackworth  Praed,  and  Henry  Nelson  Cole- 
ridge. Their  exertions  led  to  the  formation  of  Boards  of 
Education  for  the  different  dioceses,  and  the  establishment 
of  training-colleges,  with  the  double  aim  of  securing  relig- 
ious education  for  the  middle  classes  and  the  collegiate 
education  of  the  school-masters. 

In  1840  he  'completed  beneath  the  shades  of  Hagley' 
(the  home  of  Lord  and  Lady  Lyttelton),  a  treatise  on 
'  Church  Principles  Considered  in  their  Results ;'  in  which 
he  maintained  with  ingenuity  and  vigour  the  visibility  and 
authority  of  the  Church,  the  mathematical  certainty  of  the 
Apostolical  Succession,  and  the  nature  and  efficacy  of  the 
Sacraments,  and  vindicated  the  Church  of  England  as  the 
divinely-appointed  guardian  of  Christian  truth,  alike  against 
Popish  and  Puritan  innovations.  On  '  St.  Stephen's  Day,' 
1840,  Cardinal  Newman  writes  :  '  Gladstone's  book  is  not 
open  to  the  objections  I  feared ;  it  is  doctrinaire,  and  (I 
think)  somewhat  self-coniident ;  but  it  will  do  good.' 

On  the  28th  of  December,  the  Rev.  Frederick  Deni- 
son  Maurice  writes  thus  of  Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  latest 
work : — 


62  MR.  GLADSTONE 

His  Aristotelianism  is,  it  strikes  me,  more  deeply  fixed  in 
him  than  before,  and,  on  that  account,  I  do  not  see  how  he 
can  ever  enter  enough  into  the  feehng  and  truth  of  Rational- 
ism to  refute  it.  His  notion  of  attacking  the  Evangelicals  by 
saying, '  Press  your  opinions  to  their  results,  and  they  become 
Rationalistic,'  is  ingenious,  and  wrought  out,  I  think,  with 
great  skill  and  an  analytical  power  for  which  I  had  not  given 
him  credit ;  but  after  all  it  seems  to  me  an  argument  which  is 
fitter  for  the  Courts  than  for  a  theological  controversy. 

In  1840,  in  a  debate  on  our  relations  with  China,  Mr. 
Gladstone  crossed  swords  with  IMacaulay,  in  a  speech  re- 
markable for  its  eloquent  expression  of  anxiety  that  the 
arms  of  England  should  never  be  employed  in  unrighteous 
enterprises. 

At  Midsummer,  1840,  Islr.  Gladstone  (accompanied  by 
Lord  Lyttelton)  went  dov/n  to  Eton  to  examine  the  candi- 
dates for  the  Newcastle  Scholarship,  founded  by  his  polit- 
ical patron  the  fifth  Duke.  He  characteristically  set  a 
passage  from  St.  Augustine  in  the  paper  on  divinity ;  and 
one  of  those  whom  he  examined  writes :  '  I  have  a  vivid 
and  delightful  impression  of  Mr.  Gladstone  sitting  in  what 
was  then  called  the  Library,  on  an  estrade  on  which  the 
head  master  habitually  sate,  above  which  was  placed,  about 
1840,  the  bust  of  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  and  the  names  of 
the  Newcastle  Scholars.  .  .  .  When  he  gave  me  a  Virgil  and 
asked  me  to  translate  Georg.  ii.  475,  scq.,  I  was  pleasantly 
surprised  by  the  beautiful  eye  turning  on  me  with  the  ques- 
tion, "What  is  the  meaning  of  sacra feroV  and  his  look 
of  approval  when  I  said,  "  Carry  the  sacred  vessels  in  the 
procession." 

'  I  wish  you  to  understand  that  Mr.  Gladstone  appeared 
not  to  me  only,  but  to  others,  as  a  gentleman  wholly  unlike 
other  examiners  or  school  people.    It  was  not  as  ^politician 


THE   WHIGS   IN   DIFFICULTIES  63 

that  we  admired  him,  but  as  a  refined  Churchman,  deep 
also  in  political  philosophy  (so  we  conjectured  from  his 
quoting  Burke  on  the  Continual  State  retaining  its  identity 
though  made  up  of  passing  individuals),  deep  also  in  lofty 
poetry,  as  we  guessed  from  his  giving  us,  as  a  theme  for 
original  Latin  verse,  "  the  poet's  eye  in  a  fine  frenzy,"  &c. 
When  he  spoke  to  us  in  "  Pop  "  as  an  honorary  member, 
we  were  charmed  and  affected  emotionally :  his  voice  was 
low  and  sweet,  his  manner  was  that  of  an  elder  cousin : 
he  seemed  to  treat  us  with  unaffected  respect ;  and  to  be 
treated  with  respect  by  a  man  is  the  greatest  delight  for  a 
boy.  It  was  the  golden  time  of  "  retrograding  transcen- 
dentalism," as  the  hard  heads  called  the  Anglo-Catholic 
symphony.  He  seemed  to  me  then  an  apostle  of  un- 
worldly ardour"  bridling  his  life.' 

In  this  examination  Mr.  Gladstone  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  awarding  the  Newcastle  medal  to  Henry  Fitzmau- 
rice  Hallam,  the  youngest  brother  of  his  own  beloved 
friend. 

At  the  beginning  of  1841  troubles  were  thickening 
round  the  Whig  Ministry.  The  Budget  showed  a  deficit 
of  nearly  two  millions.  A  proposal  to  meet  this  deficit  by 
an  alteration  in  the  sugar-duties  was  defeated  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  Then,  in  despair.  Lord  John  Russell  invited 
the  House  to  consider  the  state  of  the  law  with  regard  to 
the  trade  in  corn.  He  proposed  a  fixed  duty  of  eight 
shillings  per  quarter  on  wheat,  and  proportionately  di- 
minished rates  on  rye,  barley,  and  oats.  Sir  Robert  Peel 
met  this  proposal  by  a  motion  of  want  of  confidence, 
levelled  against  the  whole  financial  policy,  and  especially 
against  this  proposal  of  a  fixed  duty  in  lieu  of  a  sliding 
scale.    The  vote  was  carried.    On  June  22  Parliament  was 


64  MR.  GLADSTONE 

dissolved  by  the  Queen  in  person;  the  Whig  Ministers 
thus  seeking,  as  Lord  Shaftesbury  wrote  in  his  diary,  to 
'hide  their  own  hoary  profligacy  under  her  young  virtue.' 
Their  device  did  not  succeed,  for  the  general  election 
resulted  in  a  Tory  majority  of  eighty.  Mr.  Gladstone  was 
again  returned  for  Newark,  with  the  present  Duke  of  Rut- 
land for  his  colleague.  The  new  Parliament  met  in  Au- 
gust, Ministers  were  defeated  on  the  Address  and  resigned, 
and  Sir  Robert  Peel  formed  an  Administration,  in  which 
Mr.  Gladstone  was  of  course  included. 

There  is  a  tradition  that,  having  already  conceived  a 
lively  interest  in  the  ecclesiastical  and  agrarian  problems 
of  Ireland,  he  had  set  his  affections  on  the  Chief  Secreta- 
ryship, But  Sir  Robert  Peel,  a  consummate  judge  of  ad- 
ministrative capacity,  had  discerned  his  young  friend's 
financial  aptitude,  and  the  member  for  Newark  became 
Vice-President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  and  Master  of  the 
Mint,  and  was  sworn  of  the  Privy  Council.  Speaking  from 
the  hustings  at  his  re-election  on  taking  office,  he  pro- 
claimed that  the  British  farmer  might  rely  on  adequate 
protection  for  his  industry,  and  that  this  protection  was  to 
be  secured  by  a  sliding  scale.  The  duties  were  to  be  re- 
duced and  the  system  improved,  but  the  principle  was  to 
be  maintained. 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year  the  Anglican  Bishopric  at 
Jerusalem  was  set  up.  Mr.  Gladstone  dined  with  Baron 
Bunsen  on  the  King  of  Prussia's  birthday,  when  we  learn, 
on  the  unimpeachable  authority  of  Lord  Shaftesbury,  that 
he  'stripped  himself  of  a  part  of  his  Puseyite  garments, 
spoke  like  a  pious  man,  rejoiced  in  the  bishopric  of  Jeru- 
salem, and  proposed  the  health  of  Alexander  (the  new 
Bishop  of  that  see).     This  is  delightful,  for  he  is  a  good 


THE   BOARD   OF  TRADE  65 

man,  a  clever  man,  and  an  industrious  man.'  Baron  Bunsen, 
describing  the  same  occasion,  writes  :  '  Never  was  heard  a 
more  exquisite  speech.  It  flowed  Hke  a  gentle  and  translu- 
cent stream.  .  .  .  We  drove  back  to  town  in  the  clearest 
starlight ;  Gladstone  continuing  with  unabated  animation 
to  pour  forth  his  harmonious  thoughts  in  melodious  tone.' 
On  November  6,  1841,  Mr.  Gladstone  writes  thus  from 
Whitehall  to  Mr.  Hope  : 

Amidst  public  business  quite  sufficient  for  a  man  of  my 
compass,  I  have  during  the  whole  of  the  week  perforce  been 
carrying  on  with  the  Bishop  of  London  and  with  Bunsen  a 
correspondence  on,  and  inquisition  into,  the  Jerusalem  de- 
sign, until  I  almost  reel  and  stagger  under  it. 

On  November  20  he  writes  : 

I  am  ready  individually  to  brave  misconstruction  for  the 
sake  of  union  with  any  Christian  men,  provided  the  terms  of 
the  union  be  not  contrary  to  sound  principle ;  and  perhaps  in 
this  respect  might  go  further,  at  least  in  one  of  the  possible 
directions,  than  you.  But  to  declare  the  living  constitution 
of  a  Christian  Church  to  be  of  secondary  moment  is  of  course 
in  my  view  equivalent  to  a  denial  of  a  portion  of  the  faith — 
and  I  think  you  will  say  it  is  a  construction  which  cannot 
fairly  be  put  upon  the  design,  as  far  as  it  exists  in  fixed  rules 
and  articles.  It  is  one  thing  to  attribute  this  in  the  way  of 
unfavourable  surmise,  or  as  an  apprehension  of  ultimate  de- 
velopments— it  is  another  to  publish  it  to  the  world  as  a  char- 
acter ostentatiously  assumed. 

So  even  amid  the  engrossing  cares  of  a  new  office,  the  Vice- 
President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  retained  his  old  interest  in 
ecclesiastical  concerns. 

On  April  6,  1842,  he  writes  thus  to  Mr.  Murray  the 
publisher : 


66  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Amidst  the  pressure  of  more  urgent  affairs,  I  have  held  no 
consultation  with  you  regarding  my  books  and  the  sale  or  no 
sale  of  them.  As  to  the  third  edition  of  the  '  State  in  its  Re- 
lations,' I  should  think  the  remaining  copies  had  better  be 
got  rid  of  in  whatever  summary  or  ignominious  mode  you 
may  deem  best.  They  must  be  dead  beyond  recall.  As  to 
the  others,  I  do  not  know  whether  the  season  of  the  year  has 
at  all  revived  the  demand ;  and  would  suggest  to  you  whether 
it  would  be  well  to  advertize  them  a  little.  I  do  not  think 
they  find  their  way  much  into  the  second-hand  shops.  With 
regard  to  the  fourth  edition,  I  do  not  know  whether  it  would 
be  well  to  procure  any  review  or  notice  of  it,  and  I  am  not  a 
fair  judge  of  its  merits  even  in  comparison  with  the  original 
form  of  the  work ;  but  my  idea  is,  that  it  is  less  defective  both 
in  the  theoretical  and  in  the  historical  development,  and  ought 
to  be  worth  the  notice  of  those  who  deemed  the  earlier  edi- 
tions worth  their  notice  and  purchase :  that  it  would  really 
put  a  reader  in  possession  of  the  view  it  was  intended  to  con- 
vey, which  I  fear  is  more  than  can  with  any  truth  be  said  of 
its  predecessors.  I  am  not,  however,  in  any  state  of  anxiety 
or  impatience :  and  I  am  chiefly  moved  to  refer  these  suggest- 
ions to  your  judgment  from  perceiving  that  the  fourth  edi- 
tion is  as  yet  far  from  having  cleared  itself. 

The  position  which  Mr.  Gladstone  now  occupied  in  the 
view  of  his  contemporaries  is  well  indicated  in  the  following 
letter  of  Sir  Stafford  Northcote's,  written  in  the  same  year  : 

There  is  but  one  statesman  of  the  present  day  in  whom  I 
feel  entire  confidence,  and  with  whom  I  cordially  agree,  and 
that  statesman  is  Mr.  Gladstone.  I  look  upon  him  as  the 
representative  of  the  party,  scarcely  developed  as  yet,  though 
secretly  forming  and  strengthening,  which  will  stand  by  all 
that  is  dear  and  sacred  in  my  estimation,  in  the  struggle  which 
I  believe  will  come  ere  very  long  between  good  and  evil,  or- 
der and  disorder,  the  Church  and  the  world,  and  I  see  a  very 
small  band  collecting  round  him,  and  ready  to  fight  manfully 
under  his  leading. 


THE   REVISED   TARIFF  6/ 

An  inevitable  change  is  from  this  time  to  be  traced 
in  the  topics  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  parliamentary  speaking. 
Instead  of  discoursing  on  the  corporate  conscience  of  the 
State  and  the  endowments  of  the  Church,  the  importance 
of  Christian  education,  and  the  theological  unfitness  of  the 
Jews  to  sit  in  Parliament,  he  is  solving  business-like  prob- 
lems about  foreign  tariffs  and  the  exportation  of  machin- 
ery ;  waxing  eloquent  over  the  regulation  of  railways,  and 
a  graduated  tax  on  corn ;  subtle  on  the  monetary  merits  of 
half-farthings,  and  great  in  the  mysterious  lore  of  quassia 
and  cocculus  indicus. 

In  1842  he  had  a  principal  hand  in  the  preparation 
of  the  revised  tariff,  by  which  duties  were  abolished  or 
sensibly  diminished  in  the  case  of  twelve  hundred  duty- 
paying  articles.  In  defending  the  new  scheme  he  spoke 
incessantly,  and  amazed  the  House  by  his  mastery  of  detail, 
his  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  commercial  needs  of  the 
country,  and  his  inexhaustible  power  of  exposition.  On 
March  14  Mr.  Greville  writes:  'Gladstone  has  already 
displayed  a  capacity  which  makes  his  admission  into  the 
Cabinet  indispensable.'  A  commercial  Minister  had  ap- 
peared on  the  scene,  and  the  shade  of  Mr.  Huskisson  had 
revived.  Yet  amid  all  the  excitements  and  interests  of 
office,  he  could  turn  aside  the  discourse  on  social  and 
educational  questions  with  as  much  earnestness  and  elo- 
quence as  if  they,  and  only  they,  possessed  his  mind.  In 
January,  1843,  ^^^  spoke  at  the  opening  of  the  Collegiate 
Institution  of  Liverpool,  and  delivered  a  powerful  plea  for 
the  better  education  of  the  middle  classes. 

This  year — 1843 — was  destined  to  witness  a  great  ad- 
vance in  Mr.  Gladstone's  progress  towards  the  front  rank 
of  statesmen.     Lord  Ripon  left  the  Board  of  Trade  for 


68  MR.    GLADSTONE 

the  Board  of  Control,  and  Mr.  Gladstone,  succeeding  him 
as  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  became  a  member 
of  the  Cabinet  at  the  age  of  thirty-three.  He  was  now 
master  in  name,  as  he  had  long  been  in  reality,  of  his  own 
department.  His  appointment  as  President  of  the  Board 
bears  date  June  lo,  1843,  ^^^^  ^'^  has  recorded  the  fact  that 
'the  very  first  opinion  which  he  ever  was  called  upon  to 
give  in  Cabinet,'  was  an  opinion  in  favour  of  v/ithdrawing 
the  Bill  providing  Education  for  Children  in  Factories :  to 
which  vehement  opposition  was  offered  by  the  Dissenters 
on  the  ground  that  it  was  too  favourable  to  the  Established 
Church. 

His  position  now  seemed  assured ;  yet  on  October  23, 
1843,  he  writes  to  a  friend :  'Uneasy,  in  my  opinion,  must 
be  the  position  of  every  member  of  Parliament  who  thinks 
independently  in  these  times,  or  in  any  that  are  likely  to 
succeed  them ;  and  in  proportion  as  a  man's  course  of 
thought  deviates  from  the  ordinary  lines,  his  seat  must 
less  and  less  resemble  a  bed  of  roses.' 

The  following  curious  extract  from  the  diary  of  the  late 
Lord  Malmesbury  belongs  to  the  period  which  we  are  no\v' 
approaching : 

November  7,  1844. — Met  Mr.  Gladstone.  ...  a  man  who  is 
much  spoken  of  as  one  who  will  come  to  the  front.  We  were 
disappointed  at  his  appearance,  which  is  that  of  a  Roman 
Catholic  ecclesiastic  ;  but  he  is  very  agreeable. 

On  December  29,  1844,  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Arch- 
deacon (afterwards  Bishop)  Wilberforce,  Mr.  Gladstone 
writes  thus  about  the  prospects  of  the  Church  of  England  : 
'  I  rejoice  to  see  that  your  views  are  on  the  whole  hopeful. 
For  my  part  I  heartily  go  along  with  you.     The  fabric  con- 


THE   MAYNOOTH    GRANT  69 

solidates  itself  more  and  more,  even  while  the  earthquake 
rocks  it ;  for,  with  a  thousand  drawbacks  and  deductions, 
love  grows  larger,  zeal  warmer,  truth  firmer  among  us.  It 
makes  the  mind  sad  to  speculate  upon  the  question  how 
much  better  all  might  have  been ;  but  our  mourning  should 
be  turned  into  joy  and  thankfulness  when  we  think  also  how 
much  worse  it  was.  It  seems  to  be  written  for  our  learning 
and  use  :  "  He  will  be  very  gracious  to  thee  at  the  voice  of 
thy  cry ;  when  He  shall  hear  it  He  will  answer  thee.  And 
though  the  Lord  give  you  the  bread  of  adversity  and  the 
water  of  affliction,  yet  shall  not  thy  teachers  be  removed  into 
a  corner  any  more  ;  but  thine  eyes  shall  see  thy  teachers. 
And  thine  ears  shall  hear  a  word  behind  thee,  saying,  '  This 
is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it.' '' ' 

This  letter  was  written  on  the  eve  of  a  momentous 
change  in  the  writer's  secular  position. 

In  the  Session  of  1844  Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  response  to 
the  requests  of  Irish  members,  had  given  an  undertaking 
that  the  Government  would  apply  themselves  to  the  ques- 
tion of  academical  education  in  Ireland,  with  a  view  to 
bringing  it  more  nearly  to  the  standard  of  England  and 
Scotland,  increasing  its  amount  and  improving  its  quality. 
In  fulfilment  of  this  pledge,  the  Government,  at  the  opening 
of  the  Session  of  1845,  proposed  simultaneously  to  establish 
non-sectarian  colleges  in  Ireland,  and  to  increase  the  grant 
to  Maynooth.  The  College  of  Maynooth,  intended  for  the 
education  of  Roman  Catholic  priests  and  laymen,  had  fallen 
into  poverty  and  decay.  With  a  view  to  propitiating  Irish 
sentiment,  the  Government  proposed  to  increase  the  grant 
already  made  to  the  college  from  g,ooo/.  to  30,000/.  a  year. 
This  grant  was  not  to  be  subject  to  an  annual  vote ,  and  the 
repairs  of  the  college  were  to  be  executed  by  the  Board  of 


70 


MR.  GLADSTONE 


Works.  These  proposals  placed  Mr.  Gladstone  in  a  position 
of  great  difficulty.  The  choice  before  him  was  to  support 
Sir  Robert  Peel's  measure,  or  else  to  retire  from  his  Gov- 
ernment into  a  position  of  complete  isolation,  and,  what 
was  more  than  this,  subject  to  a  grave  and  general  imputa- 
tion of  political  eccentricity.  In  this  strait,  Mr.  Gladstone 
sought  counsel  from  his  friends.  Archdeacon  Manning 
and  Mr.  Hope  strongly  urged  him  to  remain  in  the  Cabi- 
net, where  his  presence  and  influence  would  be  of  immense 
value  to  the  Church.  Lord  Stanley  warned  him  that  res- 
ignation must  be  followed  by  resistance  to  the  proposal 
of  the  Government,  and  that  this  would  involve  him  in  the 
storms  of  religious  agitation.  Mr.  Gladstone  persisted  in 
his  intention,  but  he  plainly  stated  that  his  resignation 
would  not  of  necessity  be  followed  by  resistance  to  the 
proposal  about  Maynooth. 

My  whole  purpose  was  to  place  myself  in  a  position  in 
which  I  should  be  free  to  consider  my  course  without  being 
liable  to  any  just  suspicion  on  the  ground  of  personal  interest. 
It  is  not  profane  if  I  now  say, '  with  a  great  price  obtained  I 
this  freedom.'  The  political  association  in  which  I  stood  was 
to  me  at  the  time  the  alpha  and  omega  of  public  life.  The 
Government  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  believed  to  be  of  immov- 
able strength.  My  place,  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade, 
was  at  the  very  kernel  of  its  most  interesting  operations ;  for 
it  was  in  progress,  from  year  to  year,  with  continually  waxing 
courage,  towards  the  emancipation  of  industry,  and  therein 
towards  the  accomplishment  of  another  great  and  blessed 
work  of  public  justice.  Giving  up  what  I  highly  prized,  aware 
that 

male  sarta 
Gratia  nequicquam  coit,  et  rescinditur, 

I  felt  myself  open  to  the  charge  of  being  opinionated,  and 
wanting  in  deference  to  really  great  authorities ;  and  I  could 


A  CASE  OF  CONSCIENCE  7 1 

not  but  know  that  I  should  inevitably  be  regarded  as  fastid- 
ious and  fanciful,  fitter  for  a  dreamer,  or  possibly  a  schoolman, 
than  for  the  active  purposes  of  public  life  in  a  busy  and  mov- 
ing age. 

In  January,  1845,  Mr.  Gladstone  resigned,  not,  how- 
ever, before  he  had  completed  a  second  '  revised  tariff,' 
carrying  considerably  further  the  principles  on  which  he 
had  acted  in  the  earlier  revision  of  1842.  In  the  debate 
on  the  Address  at  the  opening  of  the  Session  he  explained 
his  retirement.  He  stated  that  it  had  reference  to  the 
intentions  of  the  Government  with  respect  to  Maynooth ; 
that  those  intentions  pointed  to  a  measure  at  variance  with 
the  system  which  he  had  maintained,  '  in  a  form  the  most 
detailed  and  deliberate,'  in  a  published  treatise;  that  he 
thought  that  those  who  had  borne  such  solemn  testimony 
to  a  particular  view  of  a  great  constitutional  question 
'  ought  not  to  be  parties  responsible  for  proposals  which 
involved  a  material  departure  from  it.'  The  purpose  of 
his  retirement  was  to  place  himself  in  a  position  to  form 
not  only  an  honest,  but  likewise  an  independent  and  an 
unsuspected  judgment,  on  the  plan  to  be  submitted  by  the 
Government. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  retirement  from  the  Ministry  drew  ex- 
pressions of  lively  regret,  together  with  flattering  testimo- 
nies to  his  character  and  abilities,  alike  from  his  late  chief 
and  from  the  leader  of  the  Opposition.  Having,  by  retir- 
ing, established  his  perfect  freedom  of  action,  he  met  the 
proposals  of  the  Government  in  a  sympathetic  spirit.  He 
defended  the  grant  to  Maynooth  in  a  long  speech  full  of  in- 
genious argumentation,  and  urged  with  great  force  that,  if 
the  State  was  to  give  '  a  more  indiscriminating  support ' 
than  previously  to  various  forms  of  religious  opinion,  it 


72  MR.  GLADSTONE 

would  be  improper  and  unjust  to  exclude  the  Church  of 
Rome  in  Ireland  from  participating  in  its  benefits. 

No  one  who  has  the  slightest  acquaintance  with  the 
tone  and  temper  of  the  House  of  Commons  needs  to  be 
told  that  Mr.  Gladstone's  resignation  was  regarded  by  the 
mass  of  his  party  with  angry  amazement.  Here  was  a 
young  and  successful  statesuian  who  had  renounced  an 
important  post  in  the  Cabinet  sooner  than  be  responsible 
for  legislation  inconsistent  with  his  earlier  opinion,  though 
now,  as  a  private  member,  he  was  ready  to  support  the  very 
Bill  which  he  would  not  be  a  party  to  introducing.  This 
was  an  act  of  parliamentary  Quixotism  too  eccentric  to  be 
intelligible.  It  argued  a  fastidious  sensitiveness  of  con- 
science and  a  nice  sense  of  political  propriety  so  opposed 
to  the  sordid  selfishness  and  unblushing  tergiversation  of 
the  ordinary  place-hunter  as  to  be  almost  offensive. 

The  possessor  of  this  kind  of  supernatural  virtue  could 
scarcely  be  popular  with  the  slaves  of  party,  the  docile 
disciples  of  the  Carlton  and  the  Whip,  and  by  them  the 
member  for  Newark  was  generally  voted  whimsical,  fan- 
tastic, impracticable;  a  man  whose  'conscience  was  so 
tender  that  he  would  never  go  straight';  a  visionary  not 
to  be  reUed  on  or  reckoned  with  —  in  brief,  exactly  that 
type  of  character  and  intellect  which  is  to  the  political 
manager  a  powerful  irritant,  and  to  the  hacks  whom  he 
manipulates  a  sealed  and  hopeless  mystery.  That  typical 
man  of  the  world,  Mr.  Charles  Greville,  writes  on  Febru- 
ary 6:  'Gladstone's  explanation  was  ludicrous.  Every- 
body said  that  he  had  only  succeeded  in  showing  that  his 
resignation  was  quite  uncalled  for.'  This  probably  ex- 
presses the  prevailing  sentiment,  and  Mr.  Gladstone's  re- 
tirement, by  impairing  his  reputation  for  common  sense, 


SEARCHINGS   OF   HEART  73 

threatened  serious  and  lasting  injury  to  his  political  career. 
Eut  the  whirligig  of  time  brought  its  revenges  even  more 
swiftly  and  more  unexpectedly  than  usual.  A  conjunction 
of  events  arose  in  which  he  was  indispensable.  The  prac- 
tical side  of  his  genius  was  destined  to  repair  the  mischief 
which  the  speculative  side  had  wrought;  but  for  the  mo- 
ment the  speculative  side  was  uppermost,  as  the  following 
letters  show : 

The  Right  Hon.  JV.  E.  Gladstone,  M.P.,  to  J.  R.  Hope,  Esq. 

13  Carlton  House  Terrace  : 
Private,  Thursday  night,  May  15,  '45. 

My  dear  Hope, —  In  1838  you  lent  me  that  generous  and 
powerful  aid  in  the  preparation  of  my  book  for  the  press,  to 
which  I  owe  it  that  the  defects  and  faults  of  the  work  fell 
short  of  absolutely  disqualifying  it  for  its  purpose.  From  that 
time  I  began  to  form  not  only  high  but  definite  anticipations 
of  the  services  which  you  would  render  to  the  Church  in  the 
deep  and  searching  processes  through  which  she  has  passed 
and  yet  has  to  pass.  These  anticipations,  however,  did  not 
rest  only  upon  my  own  wishes,  or  on  the  hopes  which  benefits 
already  received  might  have  led  me  to  form.  In  the  com- 
mencement of  1840,  in  the  very  room  where  we  talked  to-night, 
you  voluntarily  and  somewhat  solemnly  tendered  to  me  the 
assurance  that  you  would  at  all  times  be  ready  to  co-operate 
with  me  in  furtherance  of  the  welfare  of  the  Church,  and  you 
placed  no  limit  upon  the  extent  of  such  co-operation.  I  had 
no  title  to  expect  and  had  not  expected  a  promise  so  heart- 
stirring,  but  I  set  upon  it  a  value  scarcely  to  be  described,  and 
it  ever  after  entered  as  an  element  of  the  first  importance  into 
all  my  views  of  the  future  course  of  public  affairs  in  their 
bearing  upon  religion. 

After  speaking  of  the  'gigantic  opportunities  of  good 
or  evil  to  the  Church  which  the  course  of  events  seems 
certain  to  open  up,'  Mr.  Gladstone  continues : 


74  MR.  GLADSTONE 

If  the  time  shall  ever  come  (which  I  look  upon  as  ex- 
tremely uncertain,  but  I  think  if  it  comes  at  all  it  will  be  be- 
fore the  lapse  of  many  years)  when  I  am  called  upon  to  use 
any  of  those  opportunities,  it  would  be  my  duty  to  look  to 
you  for  aid,  under  the  promise  to  which  I  have  referred,  un- 
less in  the  meantime  you  shall  as  deliberately  and  solemnly 
withdraw  that  promise  as  you  first  made  it.  I  will  not  de- 
scribe at  length  how  your  withdrawal  of  it  would  increase 
that  sense  of  desolation  which,  as  matters  now  stand,  often 
approaches  to  being  intolerable.  I  only  speak  of  it  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  and  I  am  anxious  you  should  know  that  I  look  to  it 
as  one  of  the  very  weightiest  kind,  under  a  title  which  you 
have  given  me.  You  would  of  course  cancel  it  upon  the  con- 
viction that  it  involved  sin  upon  your  part :  with  anything  less 
than  that  conviction  I  do  not  expect  that  you  will  cancel  it ; 
and  I  am,  on  the  contrary,  persuaded  that  you  will  struggle 
against  pain,  depression,  disgust,  and  even  against  doubt 
touching  the  very  root  of  our  position,  for  the  fulfilment  of 
any  actual  duties  which  the  post  you  actually  occupy  in  the 
Church  of  God,  taken  in  connexion  with  your  faculties  and 
attainments,  may  assign  to  you. 

You  have  given  me  lessons  that  I  have  taken  thankfully. 
Believe  I  do  it  in  the  payment  of  a  debt,  if  I  tell  you  that 
your  mind  and  intellect,  to  which  I  look  up  with  reverence 
under  a  consciousness  of  immense  inferiority,  are  much  under 
the  dominion,  whether  it  be  known  or  not  known  to  yourself, 
of  an  agency  lower  than  your  own,  more  blind,  more  variable, 
more  difficult  to  call  inwardly  to  account  and  make  to  answer 
for  itself  —  the  agency,  I  mean,  of  painful  and  disheartening 
impressions — impressions  which  have  an  unhappy  and  power- 
ful tendency  to  realise  the  very  worst  of  what  they  picture. 
Of  this  fact  I  have  repeatedly  noted  the  signs  in  you. 

I  should  have  been  glad  to  have  got  your  advice  on  some 
points  connected  with  the  Maynooth  question  on  Monday  next, 
but  I  will  not  introduce  here  any  demand  upon  your  kindness ; 
the  claims  of  this  letter  on  your  attention,  be  they  great  or 


THE   IRISH   CHURCH  7^ 

small,  and  you  are  their  only  judge,  rests  upon  wholly  different 
grounds.  God  bless  and  guide  you,  and  prosper  the  work  of 
your  hands. — Ever  your  affectionate  friend, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 

On  July  23,  1845,  ^'^^'  Gladstone  writes  thus  to  the 
same  friend : — 

Ireland  is  likely  to  find  this  country  and  Parliament  so  much 
employment  for  years  to  come,  that  I  feel  rather  oppressively 
an  obligation  to  try  and  see  it  with  my  own  eyes  instead  of 
using  those  of  other  people,  according  to  the  limited  measure 
of  my  means.  Now  your  company  would  be  so  very  valuable 
as  well  as  agreeable  to  me,  that  T  am  desirous  to  know  whether 
you  are  at  all  inclined  to  entertain  the  idea  of  devoting  the 
month  of  September,  after  the  meeting  in  Edinburgh,  to  a 
working  tour  in  Ireland  with  me — eschewing  all  grandeur,  and 
taking  little  account  even  of  scenery,  compared  with  the  pur- 
pose of  looking  from  close  quarters  at  the  institutions  for  re- 
ligion and  education  of  the  country,  and  at  the  character  of 
the  people.  It  seems  ridiculous  to  talk  of  supplying  the  de- 
fects of  second-hand  information  by  so  short  a  trip;  but 
though  a  longer  time  would  be  much  better,  yet  even  a  very 
contracted  one  does  much  when  it  is  added  to  an  habitual 
though  indirect  knowledge. 

Subsequent  events  make  it  a  matter  of  regret  that  this 
projected  tour  never  took  place. 

Meanwhile  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  while  he  was 
ready  to  deal  more  generously  than  before  with  the  Roman 
Catholics  in  Ireland,  his  faith  in  the  Irish  Establishment 
was  becoming  less  robust.  On  August  16  in  this  year  he 
wrote  to  his  friend  Bishop  Wilberforce  :  '  I  am  sorry  to  ex- 
press my  apprehension  that  the  Irish  Church  is  not  in  a 
large  sense  efiicient;  the  working  results  of  the  last  ten 
years  have  disappointed  me.     It  may  be  answered,  Have 


76  MR.  GLADSTONE 

faith  in  the  ordinance  of  God;  but  then  I  must  see  the 
seal  and  signature,  and  these  how  can  I  separate  from 
ecclesiastical  descent  ?  The  title,  in  short,  is  questioned, 
and  vehemently,  not  only  by  the  Radicalism  of  the  day, 
but  by  the  Roman  Bishops,  who  claim  to  hold  the  succes- 
sion of  St.  Patrick,  and  this  claim  has  been  alive  all  along 
from  the  Reformation,  so  that  lapse  of  years  does  nothing 
against  it.'        * 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year  Mr.  Gladstone  went  to  Mu- 
nich and  paid  his  first  visit  to  Dr.  Bollinger.  He  remained 
there  a  week,  in  daily  converse  with  the  great  theologian, 
and  laid  the  foundation  of  a  friendship  which  was  sus- 
tained by  correspondence  and  repeated  visits,  and  was  in- 
terrupted only  by  the  doctor's  death  in  1890. 

On  October  30,  1845,  ^^  writes  from  Baden-Baden: 

'  No  religion  and  no  politics  until  we  meet,'  and  that  more 
than  ever  uncertain !  Hard  terms,  my  dear  Hope ;  do  not 
complain  if  I  devote  to  them  the  scraps  or  ends  of  my  fourth 
page.  But  now  let  me  rebuke  myself,  and  say,  No  levity  about 
great  and  solemn  things.  There  are  degrees  of  pressure  from 
within  that  it  is  impossible  to  resist.  The  Church  in  which 
our  lot  has  been  cast  has  come  to  the  birth,  and  the  question 
is,  will  she  have  strength  to  bring  forth  ?  I  am  persuaded  it 
is  written  in  God's  decrees  that  she  shall ;  and  that  after  deep 
repentance  and  deep  suffering  a  high  and  peculiar  part  remains 
for  her  in  healing  the  wounds  of  Christendom.  Nor  is  there 
any  man  —  I  cannot  be  silent — whose  portion  in  her  work  is 
more  clearly  marked  out  for  him  than  yours.  But  you  havci 
if  not  your  revenge,  your  security.  I  must  keep  my  word. 
God  bless  and  guide  you.  Yours  affectionately, 

W.  E.  G. 

13  C.  H.  Terrace  : 
Dec.  7,  Second  Sunday  in  Advent,  1845. 
My  dear  Hope,— I  need  hardly  tell  you  I  am  deeply  moved 


RELIGIOUS    PROJECTS  "JJ 

by  your  note,  and  your  asking  my  prayers.  I  trust  you  give 
what  you  ask.  As  for  them,  you  have  long  had  them  ;  in  pri- 
vate and  in  pubHc,  and  in  the  hour  of  Holy  Communion.  But 
you  must  not  look  for  anything  from  them  ;  only  they  cannot 
do  any  harm.  Under  the  merciful  dispensation  of  the  Gospel, 
while  the  prayer  of  the  righteous  availeth  much,  the  petition 
of  the  unworthy  does  not  return  in  evils  on  the  head  of  those 
for  whom  it  is  offered. 

Your  speaking  of  yourself  in  low  terms  is  the  greatest  kind- 
ness to  me.  It  is  with  such  things  before  my  eyes  that  I 
learn  in  some  measure  by  comparison  my  own  true  position. 

Now  let  me  use  a  friend's  liberty  on  a  point  of  practice.  Do 
you  not  so  far  place  yourself  in  rather  a  false  position  by  with- 
drawing in  so  considerable  a  degree  from  those  active  exter- 
nal duties  in  which  you  were  so  conspicuous  .'*  Is  rest  in  that 
department  really  favorable  to  religious  enquiry  }  You  said 
to  me  you  preferred  at  this  time  selecting  temporal  works : 
are  we  not  in  this  difficulty,  that  temporal  works,  so  far  as 
mere  money  is  concerned,  are  nowadays  relatively  overdone  } 
But  if  you  mean  temporal  works  otherwise  than  in  money,  I 
would  to  God  we  could  join  hands  upon  a  subject  of  the  kind 
which  interested  you  much  two  years  ago.  And  now  I  am 
going  to  speak  of  what  concerns  myself  more  than  you,  as 
needing  it  more. 

The  desire  we  then  both  felt  passed  off,  as  far  as  I  am  con- 
cerned, into  a  plan  of  asking  only  a  donation  and  subscription. 
Now  it  is  very  difficult  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  duty  to  the 
poor  by  money  alone.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  extremely 
hard  for  me  (and  I  suppose  possibly  for  you)  to  give  them 
much  in  the  shape  of  time  and  thought,  for  both  with  me  are 
already  tasked  up  to  and  beyond  their  powers,  and  by  mat- 
ters which  I  cannot  displace.  I  much  wish  we  could  execute 
some  plan  which,  without  demanding  much  time,  would  en- 
tail the  discharge  of  some  humble  and  humbling  offices.  .  .  . 
If  you  thought  with  me — and  I  do  not  see  why  you  should 
not,  except  that  to  assume  the  reverse  is  paying  myself  a  com- 
pliment— let  us  go  to  work,  as  in  the  young  days  of  the  col- 


78  MR.  GLADSTONE 

lege  plan,  but  with  a  more  direct  and  less  ambitious  purpose. 
...  In  answer  give  me  advice  and  help  if  you  can  ;  and  when 
we  meet  to  talk  of  these  things,  it  will  be  more  refreshing 
than  metaphysical  or  semi-metaphysical  argument.  All  that 
part  of  my  note  which  refers  to  questions  internal  to  your- 
self is  not  meant  to  be  answered  except  in  your  own  breast. 

And  now  may  the  Lord  grant  that,  as  heretofore,  so  ever 
we  may  walk  in  His  holy  house  as  friends,  and  know  how  good 
a  thing  it  is  to  dwell  together  in  unity !  But  at  all  events 
may  He,  as  He  surely  will,  compass  you  about  with  His  pres- 
ence and  by  His  holy  angels,  and  cause  you  to  awake  up  aft- 
er His  likeness,  and  to  be  satisfied  with  it. 

Ever  your  affectionate  friend, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 

In  the  winter  of  this  year  Mr.  Gladstone  sustained  a 
slight  but  permanent  injury.  Though  not  a  passionate 
sportsman,  he  was  fond  of  shooting.  His  gun  exploded 
while  he  was  loading  it,  and  so  shattered  the  first  finger  of 
his  left  hand  that  amputation  was  necessary. 


CHAPTER   IV 

Free  Trade — The  Repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws — Retires  from  the  repre- 
sentation of  Newark — Returned  for  the  University  of  Oxford — 
Growth  and  transition — Loss  of  a  child — The  Gorham  judgment — 
Secession  of  friends. 

How  patient  of  inevitable  ill, 

Yet  how  determinate  in  their  righteous  will  I 

Such  was  a  poet's  most  just  description  of  the  English 
people  at  a  crisis  when  their  patience  had  been  strained  to 
bursting-point.  Towards  the  year  1845  Englishmen  were 
awaking  to  the  fact  that  a  great  part  of  the  '  ill '  under 
which  they  laboured  was  in  no  sense  '  inevitable,'  but  was 
the  direct  and  necessary  consequence  of  legislation  which 
made  their  principal  form  of  food  dear  and  difficult  to 
procure,  even  when  nature  and  Providence  supplied  it 
with  the  utmost  bounty.  What  Lord  Beaconsfield  called 
the  'clear  perception  and  terse  eloquence'  of  Mr.  Charles 
Villiers  enforced  this  truth  upon  the  attention  of  Parlia- 
ment ;  and  the  Anti-Corn-Law  League,  working  by  an  ad- 
mirable organization,  and  teaching  by  the  mouth  of  two  of 
the  greatest  orators  who  ever  spoke  the  English  language, 
drove  the  lesson  home  to  the  conscience  and  intellect  of 
their  countrymen,  already  well  prepared  for  it  by  the  sharp 
discipline  of  physical  privation.  The  agitation  had  now 
been  in  progress  for  some  ten  years,  and  for  the  moment 


8o  MR.  GLADSTONE 

it  seemed  to  be  losing  energy.  Its  fertility  of  resource  was 
a  little  exhausted  ;  its  reiterated  appeals  fell  with  less  than 
their  former  effect  upon  the  public  ear.  A  series  of  good 
harvests  had  rendered  the  evils  of  restrictive  legislation 
more  endurable. 

Sir  Robert  Peel  had  closed  the  Session  of  1845  with  an 
overwhelming  majority  in  both  Houses.  True  it  is  that,  in 
the  four  years  during  which  he  had  conducted  affairs,  he 
had  frequently  strained  the  patience  of  his  supporters ;  but 
then  passive  murmurs  only  proved  how  necessary  he  was  to 
their  interests,  and  how  accurately  he  had  calculated  their 
faculty  of  sufferance.  True  it  is  that,  towards  the  end  of  the 
Session  of  '45,  a  solitary  voice  from  the  Tory  benches  had  pre- 
sumed to  prophesy  that  protection  was  then  in  about  the  same 
condition  as  Protestantism  was  in  1828,  and  amid  tumultuous 
sympathy  a  Conservative  Government  had  been  denounced 
as  '  an  organized  hypocrisy  ' ;  but  the  cheers  of  mutual  sensi- 
bility were  in  a  great  degree  furnished  by  the  voices  opposite, 
and  the  Tory  gentlemen  beneath  the  gangway  who  swelled 
the  chorus  did  so  with  downcast  eyes  as  if  they  yet  hesitated 
to  give  utterance  to  feelings  too  long  and  too  painfully  sup- 
pressed. Practically  speaking,  the  Conservative  Government 
at  the  end  of  the  Session  of  '45  was  far  stronger  than  even  at 
the  commencement  of  the  Session  of  '42.  If  they  had  forfeited 
the  hearts  of  their  adherents,  they  had  not  lost  their  votes; 
while,  both  in  Parliament  and  the  country,  they  had  suc- 
ceeded in  appropriating  a  mass  of  loose,  superficial  opinion 
not  trammelled  by  party  ties,  and  which  complacently  recog- 
nized in  their  measures  the  gradual  and  moderate  fulfilment 
of  a  latitudinarian  policy  both  in  Church  and  State.  This 
position  was  also  aggrandized  and  confirmed  by  a  conviction 
then  prevalent,  and  which  it  is  curious  to  observe  is  often 
current  on  the  eve  of  great  changes,  that  the  Ministry  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel  was  the  only  body  of  men  then  competent  to 
carry  on  affairs.' 

'  Lord  George  Betititick,  by  B.  Disraeli,  chapter  i. 


THE   IRISH    FAMINE  8 1 

Thus  all  seemed  to  be  going  well  with  the  Govern- 
ment, when  an  unusual  phenomenon  was  noted  by  readers 
of  the  newspapers.  Four  Cabinet  Councils  were  held  in 
one  week.  Obviously  the  Government  were  in  difficulties. 
What  those  difficulties  were  it  was  not  hard  to  guess.  In 
the  previous  autumn  it  had  become  known  that,  after  a 
long  season  of  sunless  wet,  the  potatoes  had  everywhere 
been  attacked  by  an  obscure  disease.  The  failure  of  this 
crop  meant  an  Irish  famine.  The  steps  suggested  to  meet 
this  impending  calamity  were  strange  enough.  The  head 
of  the  English  peerage  recommended  the  poor  to  rely  on 
currj'-powder  as  a  nutritious  and  satisfying  food.  Another 
duke  thought  that  the  Government  could  show  no  favour 
to  a  population  almost  in  a  state  of  rebellion,  but  that  in- 
dividuals might  get  up  a  subscription.  A  noble  lord,  har- 
monizing materialism  and  faith,  urged  the  Government  to 
encourage  the  provision  of  salt-fish,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  appoint  a  day  of  public  acknowledgment  of  our  depend- 
ence on  Divine  goodness.  The  council  of  the  Royal  Ag- 
ricultural Society,  numbering  some  of  the  wealthiest  noble- 
men and  squires  in  England,  were  not  ashamed  to  lecture 
the  labourers  on  the  sustaining  properties  of  thrice-boiled 
bones. 

Amid  these  conflicting  counsels.  Sir  Robert  Peel  took 
a  bold  and  sagacious  line.  He  urged  upon  his  colleagues 
that  all  restrictions  on  the  importation  of  food  should  be 
at  once  suspended.  He  was  supported  by  only  three 
members  of  his  Cabinet.  All  that  the  rest  would  consent 
to  do  was  to  appoint  a  commission,  consisting  of  heads  of 
Irish  departments,  with  powers  to  relieve  distress  and 
provide  employment  in  the  event  of  a  sudden  outbreak  of 
famine. 


82  MR.   GLADSTONE 

The  decisive  step  came  from  the  opposite  camp.  Writ- 
ing from  Edinburgh,  on  November  22,  to  the  electors  of 
the  City  of  London,  Lord  John  Russell  announced  his 
conversion  to  total  and  immediate  repeal  of  the  Corn 
Laws.  This  letter  of  course  confirmed  Sir  Robert  Peel  in 
his  views  as  to  the  duty  of  the  Government ;  but  he  had 
to  cope  with  incurable  dissensions  in  his  Cabinet.  Lord 
Stanley  and  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch  resigned ;  and  on  De- 
cember 5  Sir  Robert  apprised  the  Queen  that  he  could  no 
longer  carry  on  the  Government.  The  task  of  forming  an 
Administration  was  offered  to,  and  after  a  struggle  de- 
clined by.  Lord  John  Russell,  and  on  December  20  Sir 
Robert  Peel  resumed  office.  Lord  Stanley  declined  to  re- 
enter the  Government,  and  his  place  as  Secretary  of  State  for 
the  Colonies  was  offered  to  and  accepted  by  Mr.  Gladstone. 

His  return  to  the  Cabinet  cost  the  young  Minister  his 
seat.  Hitherto  he  had  sat  for  Newark  as  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle's  nominee.  The  Duke  was  the  staunchest  of 
Protectionists.  He  turned  his  own  son.  Lord  Lincoln, 
out  of  the  representation  of  Nottinghamshire  for  accepting 
office  under  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  he  naturally  showed  no 
mercy  to  the  brilliant  but  wayward  politician  whom  his 
favour  had  made  member  for  Newark.  Mr.  Gladstone 
therefore  did  not  offer  himself  for  re-election  on  taking 
office,  and  he  remained  outside  the  House  of  Commons 
during  the  great  struggle  of  the  coming  year.  It  was  a 
curious  irony  of  fate  which  excluded  him  from  Parliament 
at  this  crisis  ;  for  it  seems  unquestionable  that  he  was  the 
most  advanced  Free  Trader  in  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Cabinet. 
There  are  indeed  some  who  believe  that  Sir  Robert's  con- 
version was  in  some  measure  accelerated  by  the  represen- 
tations of  his  younger  colleague. 


THE   REPEAL   OF   THE   CORN   LAWS  83 

Mr.  Gladstone's  keen  intelligence,  no  longer  concerned 
exclusively  with  theological  problems,  but  exercised  in  the 
commonplace  business  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  had  long 
been  tending  towards  freedom  of  commerce.  After  resign- 
ing office  at  the  beginning  of  1845,  he  had  published  a 
pamphlet  on  '  Recent  Commercial  Legislation,'  in  which 
he  deduced  from  the  survey  of  recent  reductions  of  duties, 
and  their  results  on  revenue  and  trade,  the  conclusion  that 
all  materials  of  industry  should,  as  far  as  possible,  be  set 
free  from  legal  charges.  The  doctrine  thus  applied  to  the 
raw  material  of  labour  gained  cogency  and  impressiveness 
when  applied  to  food.  Throughout  the  Session  of  1846, 
in  spite  of  departmental  duties  at  the  Colonial  Office,  he 
was  constantly  employed  in  the  preparation  and  comple- 
tion of  the  great  measure  of  the  year.  His  singular  com- 
bination of  intellectual  shrewdness  with  commercial  knowl- 
edge did  much  to  conduct  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws 
through  a  desperate  struggle  to  a  successful  issue.  On 
June  25,  1846,  the  Corn  Bill  was  read  a  third  time  in  the 
House  of  Lords. 

On  the  same  day  the  Government  was  beaten  in  the 
House  of  Commons  on  the  second  reading-  of  a  Coercion 
Bill  for  Ireland.  Sir  Robert  Peel  quitted  office  for  ever, 
'leaving  a  name  execrated,'  as  he  said,  'by  every  monopo- 
list, but  remembered  with  expressions  of  good  will  in  those 
places  which  are  the  abodes  of  men  whose  lot  it  is  to  la- 
bour and  to  earn  their  daily  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their 
brow.'  He  was  succeeded  by  Lord  John  Russell  at  the 
head  of  a  Whig  Administration. 

Early  in  1847,  it  was  announced  that  one  of  the  two 
members  of  the  University  of  Oxford  intended  to  retire  at 
the  general  election.     Mr.  Gladstone,  who  was  regarded 


84  MR.  GLADSTONE 

alike  by  his  contemporaries  at  Oxford,  by  men  senior  to 
himself  in  the  University,  and  by  those  who  had  come 
after  him,  with  feelings  of  enthusiastic  admiration,  was 
proposed  for  the  vacant  seat.  The  representation  of  the 
University  had  been  pronounced  by  Mr.  Canning  to  be 
the  most  coveted  prize  of  public  life,  and  Mr.  Gladstone 
has  himself  confessed  that  he  '  desired  it  with  an  almost 
passionate  fondness.'  In  his  address  to  the  electors,  he 
avowed  that  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  public  life  he  had 
been  an  advocate  for  the  exclusive  support  of  the  national 
religion  by  the  State.  But  it  had  been  in  vain.  '  I  found 
that  scarcely  a  year  passed  without  the  adoption  of  some 
fresh  measure  involving  the  national  recognition  and  the 
national  support  of  various  forms  of  religion,  and,  in  par- 
ticular, that  a  recent  and  fresh  provision  had  been  made 
for  the  propagation  from  a  public  chair  of  Arian  or  So- 
cinian  doctrines.  The  question  remaining  for  me  was 
whether,  aware  of  the  opposition  of  the  English  people,  I 
should  set  down  as  equal  to  nothing,  in  a  matter  primarily 
connected  not  with  our  own  but  with  their  priesthood,  the 
wishes  of  the  people  of  Ireland ;  and  whether  I  should 
avail  myself  of  the  popular  feeling  in  regard  to  the  Roman 
Catholics  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  against  them  a 
system  which  we  had  ceased  by  common  consent  to  en- 
force against  Arians — a  system,  above  all,  of  which  I  must 
say  that  it  never  can  be  conformable  to  policy,  to  justice, 
or  even  to  decency,  when  it  has  become  avowedly  partial 
and  one-sided  in  its  application.'  On  the  eve  of  the  elec- 
tion he  wrote  to  his  old  friend  and  tutor,  Dr.  Charles 
Wordsworth,  whom  he  had  just  induced  to  take  .the  War- 
denship  of  Trinity  College,  Glenalmond  : 

'  I  am  desirous,  and  by  God's  help  determined,  to  leave 


THE   REPRESENTATION   OF   OXFORD  85 

at  least  a  recollection  upon  the  minds  of  men  in  your 
position ;  and  the  more  so  because  I  see  plainly  that  this 
is  nearly,  if  it  be  not  quite,  the  last  election  at  which  you 
will  have  the  power  to  exercise  a  choice  as  to  prospective 
Church  policy.' 

Dr.  Moberly,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  wrote 
thus,  on  July  8,  to  a  doubtful  voter : 

For  my  own  part,  I  certainly  disapprove  of  Gladstone's  vote 
on  '  the  Godless  colleges'  (in  Ireland) ;  and  I  am  not  sure,  even 
though  1  acknowledge  the  difficulties  of  the  case,  whether  I 
approve  of  that  respecting  Maynooth ;  but  I  feel  that  I  am  not 
so  specifically  called  on  to  reward  or  punish  individual  votes, 
as  to  select  the  deepest,  truest,  most  attached,  most  effective  ad- 
vocate for  the  Church  and  Universities  in  coming,  and,  prob- 
ably, very  serious  dangers.  I  think  your  correspondence  with 
Gladstone's  committee  has  probably  done  great  good.  It  is 
very  useful  that  Gladstone  should  know  that  there  are  those 
who  are  not  satisfied  with  some  of  his  past  acts ;  but  surely 
you  will  not  press  this  hitherto  useful  course  to  the  extreme 
result  of  refraining  from  voting. 

Again,  on  July  20  : 

At  this  moment,  I  believe  it  to  be  the  question  whether 
Gladstone  shall  be  placed  in  a  position  of  political  strength  and 
independence,  by  being  elected  for  the  University,  or  whether 
he  shall  cease  to  be  a  public  man  altogether.  ...  If  Oxford 
will  not  have  him,  none  will ,  and  we  shall  simply  have  dis- 
carded, not  from  our  own  representation  only,  but  from  the 
political  service  of  the  Church  and  country,  the  man  who,  in 
this  generation,  has  most  ability,  and  willingness,  and  credit 
to  serve  them  effectually.  But  I  do  not  despair  of  you  yet. 
The  election  will  certainly  be  a  very  narrowly  decided  one. 

To  the  same  effect  the  Rev.  F.  D.  Maurice : 

If  I  had  a  vote  for  the  University  I  should  certainly  give  it 
to  Mr.  Gladstone.     I  do  not  express  this  opinion  hastily ;  but 


86  MR.  GLADSTONE 

after  endeavouring  to  consider  the  subject  on  all  sides,  and 
with  some  inclinations  towards  a  different  conclusion.  .  .  . 
Mr,  Gladstone  supported  the  Dissenting  Chapels  Bill,  sup- 
ported the  grant  to  Maynooth  even  against  the  doctrines  of 
his  own  book.  Both  charges  are  true ;  and  hereby  I  think  he 
showed,  whether  he  was  right  or  wrong,  that  he  was  an  honest 
man,  no  disciple  of  expediency ;  and  that  he  really  could  dis- 
tinguish, and  had  courage  to  own  the  distinction,  between  the 
temporary  and  the  eternal,  between  that  which  is  of  Heaven 
and  that  which  is  of  earth.  .  .  .  Mr.  Gladstone  gave  up  place 
that  he  might  confess  what  he  need  not  have  confessed,  what 
it  would  have  done  him  good  with  his  Oxford  constituents 
not  to  have  confessed.  Whether  he  was  right  or  wrong  about 
Maynooth,  this  was  the  reverse  of  following  expediency;  it 
was  acting  upon  principle.  It  is  a  kind  of  principle  which  you 
have  need  of  at  Oxford ;  it  is  the  very  principle  which  saves  a 
man  from  becoming  the  slave  of  circumstances. 

.  Parliament  was  dissolved  on  July  23,  1847.  The  nom- 
ination at  Oxford  took  place  on  July  29.  The  present 
Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England  was  the  indefatigable  sec- 
retary of  Mr.  Gladstone's  committee.  Mr.  Hope  -  Scott 
has  left  it  on  record  that  Mrs.  Gladstone  was  a  potent 
canvasser.  Sir  Robert  Peel  went  down  to  vote  for  his 
colleague.  The  venerable  Dr.  Routh,  then  nearly  ninety- 
two  years  old,  emerged  from  his  seclusion  at  Magdalen 
College  to  support  a  candidate  whose  theology  was  con- 
genial to  his  own.  At  the  close  of  the  poll,  Sir  Robert 
Inglis,  that  fine  type  of  prehistoric  Toryism,  stood  at  the 
head,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  next  to  him  with  a  majority  of 
173  over  his  Ultra-Protestant  opponent. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  career  naturally  divides  itself  into  three 
main  parts.  The  first  of  them  ends  with  his  retirement  from 
the  representation  of  Newark.  The  central  part  ranges 
from  1847  to  1868.     Happily,  the  third  is  still  incomplete. 


TRANSITION  8/ 

We  have  thus  brought  him  through  the  preparatory 
stages  of  his  course.  We  liave  carefully  followed  his  early 
education ;  the  influences  which  formed  his  character  and 
mind  •,  the  political  and  theological  controversies  in  which 
he  shared,  and  the  part  which  he  bore  in  each.  Wherever 
it  was  possible,  his  very  words  have  been  recorded.  All 
this  has  been  done  in  the  hope  of  bringing  vividly  before 
the  mind  the  scenes  and  acts  of  a  past  so  distant  that  it  is 
almost  forgotten.  A  few  contemporary  observers  survive ; 
and  it  is  only  by  their  kindness  that  the  writer  has  been 
enabled  to  present  even  this  imperfect  record  of  the  cir- 
cumstances amid  which  the  greatest  of  our  living  country- 
men reached  maturity,-  the  processes  by  which  he  was 
prepared  for  his  destined  work ;  and  the  forces  which  de- 
termined the  course  and  complexion  of  his  magnificent 
career. 

We  now  see  him  in  his  thirty-ninth  year,  with  a  record 
of  signal  and  unbroken  success,  in  the  enjoyment  of  all 
that  health,  intellect,  fortune,  and  high  character  can  give , 
eloquent,  cultivated,  accomplished,  and  now  experienced  in 
public  life ;  standing  well  with  his  party  and  not  ill  with 
his  opponents ;  admired,  respected,  and  palpably  destined 
to  bear  again,  as  he  had  borne  before,  a  leading  part  in  the 
highest  tasks  of  Imperial  Government.  It  is  an  interesting 
moment  in  an  interesting  career ;  but  the  subject  expands 
before  us,  and  for  the  remainder  of  the  narrative  we  must 
be  content  with  a  more  general  view  and  a  less  detailed 
presentment  than  were  applicable  to  the  earlier  stages. 

A  careful  study  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  votes  and  speeches 
during  the  next  three  years  would  lead  the  student,  even  if 
he  had  no  other  knowledge  of  the  facts  to  guide  him,  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  subject  of  his  study  had  arrived  at 


88  MR.  GLADSTONE 

a  period  of  transition.  On  one  side  the  Conservative  Free- 
trader clings  firmly  and  tenaciously  to  the  Toryism  of  his 
youth ;  on  another,  he  is  reaching  out  towards  new  realms 
of  Liberal  thought  and  action.  He  opposes  marriage  with 
a  deceased  wife's  sister  on  theological  and  social  grounds, 
asserting  roundly  that  such  marriage  is  'contrary  to  the 
law  of  God,  declared  for  three  thousand  years  and  up- 
wards.' He  deprecates  the  appointment  of  a  Commission 
to  enquire  into  the  Universities,  because  it  will  deter  intend- 
ing benefactors  from  effecting  their  munificent  intentions. 
He  argues  for  a  second  chamber  in  Australian  legislatures, 
citing,  perhaps  a  little  unfortunately,  the  constitutional  ex- 
ample of  contemporary  France.  In  all  these  utterances  it 
is  not  hard  to  read  the  influence  of  the  traditions  in  which 
he  was  reared,  or  of  the  ecclesiastical  community  which  he 
represents  in  Parliament. 

Yet  even  in  the  theological  domain  a  tendency  towards 
Liberalism  shows  itself.  His  hatred  of  Erastianism  is 
evinced  in  his  gallant  but  unsuccessful  attempt  to  secure 
for  the  clergy  and  laity  of  each  colonial  diocese  the  power 
of  self-government.  Amid  the  indignant  protests  of  his 
Tory  allies,  and  in  opposition  to  his  own  previous  speech 
and  vote,  he  vindicates  the  policy  of  admitting  the  Jews  to 
Parliament.  He  defends  the  establishment  of  diplomatic 
relations  with  the  Court  of  Rome ;  he  supports  the  altera- 
tion of  the  parliamentary  oath;  and,  though  he  will  not 
abet  an  abstract  attack  on  Church  rates,  he  contends  that 
their  maintenance  involves  a  corresponding  duty  to  provide 
accommodation -in  the  church  for  the  very  poorest  of  the 
congregation. 

On  the  commercial  side  his  Liberalism  is  rampant. 
With  even  fanatical  faith  he  clings  to  Free  Trade,  as  the 


PERSONAL   TRIALS  89 

best  guarantee  ior  our  national  stability  amid  the  crash  of 
the  dynasties  and  constitutions  which  went  down  in  '48. 
He  thunders  against  the  insidious  dangers  of  reciprocity. 
He  desires,  by  reforming  the  laws  which  govern  navigation, 
to  make  the  ocean,  '  that  great  highway  of  nations,  as  free 
to  the  ships  that  traverse  its  bosom  as  to  the  winds  that 
sweep  it.' 

And  so  the  three  years — 1847,  184S,  1849 — rolled  by, 
full  of  stirring  events  in  Europe  and  in  England,  in  Church 
and  in  State,  but  marked  by  no  special  incidents  in  the  life 
of  Mr.  Gladstone.  For  him  these  years  were  a  period  of 
mental  growth,  of  transition,  of  development.  A  change 
was  silently  proceeding,  which  was  not  completed  for  twen- 
ty years — if,  indeed,  it  has  been  completed  yet.  'There 
have  been,'  he  wrote  in  later  days  to  Bishop  Wilberforce, 
'  two  great  deaths,  or  transmigrations  of  spirit,  in  my  polit- 
ical existence — one,  very  slow,  the  breaking  of  ties  with 
my  original  party.'  This  was  now  in  progress-  The  other 
will  be  narrated  in  due  course. 

The  year  1850  was  destined  to  bring  into  this  brilliant 
and  prosperous  life  the  new  and  bitter  element  of  personal 
sorrow.  This  sorrow  was  twofold.  In  the  first  place  it 
took  the  form  of  domestic  bereavement.  On  April  9  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Gladstone  lost  a  little  daughter,  Catherine  Jessy, 
between  four  and  five  years  old.  The  illness  was  long  and 
painful,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  bore  his  part  in  the  nursing 
and  watching.  It  is  said  by  those  who  remember  him  in 
those  days  that  he  was  tenderly  fond  of  his  little  children, 
and  the  sorrow  had  therefore  a  peculiar  bitterness.  It  was 
the  first  time  that  death  had  entered  his  married  home. 

The  other  trial  of  the  year,  scarcely  less  searching, 
though  unlike  in  all  its  circumstances,  had  its  origin  in  the 


90 


MR.  GLADSTONE 


religious  sphere.  An  Evangelical  clergyman,  the  Rev.  G. 
C.  Gorham,  had  been  presented  to  a  living  in  the  diocese 
of  Exeter-  and  that  truly  formidable  prelate,  Bishop  Phill- 
potts,  refused  to  institute  him,  alleging  that  he  held  het- 
erodox views  on  the  subject  of  Holy  Baptism.  After  com- 
plicated litigation,  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy 
Council  decided,  on  March  8,  1850,  that  the  doctrine  held 
by  the  incriminated  clergyman  was  not  such  as  to  bar  him 
from  preferment  in  the  Church  of  England.  This  decision 
naturally  created  great  commotion  in  the  Church.  Men's 
minds  were  rudely  shaken.  The  orthodoxy  of  the  Church 
of  England  seemed  to  be  jeopardized,  and  the  supremacy 
of  the  Privy  Council  in  a  matter  touching  religious  doc- 
trine was  felt  to  be  an  intolerable  burden. 

Mr  Gladstone  was  one  of  those  whom  these  events 
profoundly  agitated,  and  on  June  4  he  liberated  his  soul 
in  an  elaborate  and  important  letter  addressed  to  Dr. 
Blomfield,  Bishop  of  London.  The  subject  of  this  letter 
was  '  The  Royal  Supremacy,  viewed  in  the  light  of  Reason, 
History,  and  the  Constitution.'  It  sought  to  prove  that, 
as  settled  at  the  Reformation,  the  Royal  Supremacy  was 
not  inconsistent  with  the  spiritual  life  and  inherent  juris- 
diction of  the  Church,  but  that  the  recent  establishment  of 
the  Privy  Council  as  the  ultimate  court  of  appeal  in  relig- 
ious causes  was  '  an  injurious,  and  even  dangerous,  depart- 
ure from  the  Reformation  Settlement.' 

Mr.  Gladstone  thus  sums  up  his  contention : 

I  find  it  no  part  of  my  duty,  my  Lord,  to  idolize  the  Bishops 
of  England  and  Wales,  or  to  place  my  conscience  in  their 
keeping.  I  do  not  presume  or  dare  to  speculate  upon  their 
particular  decisions ;  but  I  say  that,  acting  jointly,  publicly, 
solemnly,  responsibly,  they  are  the  best  and  most  natural  organs 


THE   GORHAM   JUDGMENT  9I 

of  the  judicial  office  of  the  Church  in  matters  of  heresy,  and, 
according  to  reason,  history,  and  the  Constitution,  in  that 
subject-matter  the  fittest  and  safest  counsellors  of  the  Crown. 

We  should,  indeed,  have  a  consolation,  the  greatest  perhaps 
which  times  of  heavy  trouble  and  affliction  can  afford,  in  the 
reduction  of  the  whole  matter  to  a  short,  clear,  and  simple 
issue ;  because  such  a  resolution,  when  once  unequivocally 
made  clear  by  acts,  would  sum  up  the  whole  case  before  the 
Church  to  the  effect  of  these  words  :  '  You  have  our  decision ; 
take  )-our  own ;  choose  between  the  mess  of  pottage,  and  the 
birthright  of  the  Bride  of  Christ.' 

Those  that  are  awake  might  hardly  require  a  voice  of  such 
appalling  clearness ;  those  that  sleep,  it  surely  would  awaken ; 
of  those  that  would  not  hear,  it  must  be  said,  '  Neither  would 
they  hear,  though  one  rose  from  the  dead.' 

But  She  that,  a  stranger  and  a  pilgrim  in  this  world,  is 
wedded  to  the  Lord,  and  lives  only  in  the  hope  of  His  Com- 
ing, would  know  her  part ;  and  while  going  forth  to  her  work 
with  steady  step  and  bounding  heart,  would  look  back  with 
deep  compassion  upon  the  region  she  had  quitted — upon  the 
slumbering  millions,  no  less  blind  to  the  Future,  than  ungrate- 
ful to  the  Past. 

After  citing  De  Maistre's  famous  eulogy  of  the  Church 
of  England  as  '  tres-precieuse,'  Mr.  Gladstone  thus  con- 
cludes : 

It  is  nearly  sixty  years  since  thus  a  stranger  and  an  alien,  a 
stickler  to  the  extremest  point  for  the  prerogatives  of  his 
Church,  and  nursed  in  every  prepossession  against  ours,  never- 
theless turning  his  eye  across  the  Channel,  though  he  could 
then  only  see  her  in  the  lethargy  of  her  organization,  and  the 
dull  twilight  of  her  learning,  could  nevertheless  discern  that 
there  was  a  special  work  written  of  God  for  her  in  Heaven, 
and  that  she  was  very  precious  to  the  Christian  world.  Oh ! 
how  serious  a  rebuke  to  those  who,  not  strangers  but  suckled 
at  her  breast,  not  two  generations  back,  but  the  witnesses  now 


92 


MR.  GLADSTONE 


of  her  true  and  deep  repentance,  and  of  her  reviving  zeal  and 
love,  yet  (under  whatever  provocation)  have  written  concern- 
ing her  even  as  men  might  write  that  were  hired  to  make  a  ' 
case  against  her,  and  by  an  adverse  instinct  in  the  selection  of 
evidence,  and  a  severity  of  construction,  such  as  no  history  • 
of  the  deeds  of  man  can  bear,  have  often,  too  often  in  these 
last  years,  put  her  to  open  shame  !  But  what  a  word  of  hope 
and  encouragement  to  everyone  who,  as  convinced  in  his  heart 
of  the  glory  of  her  providential  mission,  shall  unshrinkingly 
devote  himself  to  defending  within  her  borders  the  full  and 
whole  doctrine  of  the  Cross,  with  that  mystic  symbol  now  as 
ever  gleaming  down  on  him  from  Heaven,  now  as  ever  show- 
ing forth  its  inscription  :  m  hoc  signo  vinces. 

Unhappily  for  Mr.  Gladstone's  peace  of  mind,  the  view 
of  the  Church  of  England,  thus  boldly  and  beautifully  set 
forth,  did  not  commend  itself  to  all  those  with  whom  up 
to  this  time  he  had  acted  in  religious  matters.  Among 
those  whom  the  troubles  of  the  Church  most  powerfully 
affected  were  his  two  most  intimate  friends,  the  godfathers 
of  his  eldest  son.  These  were  the  Archdeacon  of  Chi- 
chester, now  Cardinal  Manning,  and  the  late  Mr.  Hope- 
Scott,  Q.C.  Archdeacon  Manning  was  a  man  who,  from 
his  undergraduate  days,  had  exercised  a  powerful  influence 
over  his  contemporaries.  This  influence  was  due  to  an 
early  maturity  of  intellect  and  character.  He  had  great 
shrewdness,  tenacious  will,  a  cogent  and  attractive  style, 
and  an  impressive  air  of  authority,  enforced  by  natural 
advantages  of  person  and  bearing.  As  years  went  on,  to 
these  qualifications  for  leadership  were  added  an  increas- 
ing fervour  of  devotion,  an  enlarged  acquaintance  with  life 
and  men,  and  an  unequalled  gift  of  administration.  Tra- 
dition says  that  the  future  Cardinal  had  once  contemplated 
a  political  career,  and,  though  a  priest,  he  was  essentially 


MR.  HOPE-SCOTT  93 

a  statesman.  He  was  on  terms  of  affectionate  intimacy 
with  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  was  his  trusted  counsellor  in  all 
that  concerned  the  welfare  and  efficiency  of  the  Church  of 
England. 

The  character  of  Mr.  Hope  (who  became  Hope-Scott 
on  succeeding  to  the  estate  of  Abbotsford)  and  the  senti- 
ments which  Mr.  Gladstone  entertained  towards  him,  have 
been  partially  indicated  by  letters  quoted  in  previous  chap- 
ters. A  fuller  view  of  him  is  given  in  the  following  letter 
addressed  by  Mr.  Gladstone  in  1873  to  his  friend's  daugh- 
ter, now  Mrs.  Maxwell- Scott  of  Abbotsford : — 

Few  men,  perhaps,  have  had  a  wider  contact  with  their 
generation,  or  a  more  varied  experience  of  personal  friend- 
ships, than  myself.  Among  the  large  number  of  estimable  and 
remarkable  people  whom  I  have  known,  and  who  have  now 
passed  away,  there  is  in  my  memory  an  inner  circle,  and  within 
it  are  the  forms  of  those  who  were  marked  oflf  from  the  com- 
parative crowd  even  of  the  estimable  and  remarkable  by  the 
peculiarity  and  privilege  of  their  type.  Gf  these  very  few  — 
some  four  or  five  I  think  only— your  father  was  one  :  and  with 
regard  to  them  it  always  seemed  to  me  as  if  the  type  in  each 
case  was  that  of  the  individual  exclusively,  and  as  if  there 
could  be  but  one  such  person  in  our  world  at  a  time.  After 
the  early  death  of  Arthur  Hallam,  I  used  to  regard  your  father 
distinctly  as  at  the  head  of  all  his  contemporaries  in  the  bright- 
ness and  beauty  of  his  gifts. 

We  were  at  Eton  at  the  same  time,  but  he  was  consider- 
ably my  junior,  so  that  we  were  not  in  the  way  of  being  drawn 
together.  At  Christ  Church  we  were  again  contemporaries, 
but  acquaintances  only,  scarcely  friends.  I  find  he  did  not 
belong  to  the  '  Oxford  Essay  Club,'  in  which  I  took  an  active 
part,  and  which  included  not  only  several  of  his  friends,  but 
one  with  whom,  unless  my  memorj' deceives  me,  he  was  most 
intimate— I  mean  Mr.  Leader. 


94 


MR.  GLADSTONE 


The  next  occasion  on  which  I  remember  to  have  seen  him 
was  in  his  sitting-room  at  Chelsea  Hospital.  There  must, 
however,  have  been  some  shortly  preceding  contact,  or  I  should 
not  have  gone  there  to  visit  him.  I  found  him  among  folios 
and  books  of  grave  appearance.  It  must  have  been  about  the 
year  1836.  He  opened  a  conversation  on  the  controversies 
which  were  then  agitated  in  the  Church  of  England,  and  which 
had  Oxford  for  their  centre.  I  do  not  think  I  had  paid  them 
much  attention  ;  but  I  was  an  ardent  student  of  Dante,  and 
likewise  of  Saint  Augustine ;  both  of  them  had  acted  power- 
fully upon  my  mind  ;  and  this  was  in  truth  the  best  prepara- 
tion I  had  for  anything  like  mental  communion  with  a  person 
of  his  elevation.  He  then  told  me  that  he  had  been  seriously 
studying  the  controversy,  and  that  in  his  opinion  the  Oxford 
authors  were  right.  He  spoke  not  only  with  seriousness,  but 
with  solemnity,  as  if  this  was  for  him  a  great  epoch ;  not 
merely  the  adoption  of  a  speculative  opinion,  but  the  reception 
of  a  profound  and  powerful  religious  impulse.  Very  strongly 
do  I  feel  the  force  of  Dr.  Newman's  statements  as  to  the  re- 
ligious character  of  his  mind.  It  is  difficult  in  retrospect  to 
conceive  of  this,  except  as  growing  up  with  him  from  infancy. 
But  it  appeared  to  me  as  if  at  this  period,  in  some  very  especial 
manner,  his  attention  had  been  seized,  his  intellect  exercised 
and  enlarged  in  a  new  field  ;  and  as  if  the  idea  of  the  Church 
of  Christ  had  then  once  for  all  dawned  upon  him  as  the  power 
which,  under  whatever  form,  was  from  thenceforward  to  be 
the  central  object  of  his  affections,  in  subordination  only  to 
Christ  Himself,  and  as  His  continuing  representative. 

From  that  time  I  only  knew  of  his  career  as  one  of  un- 
wearied religious  activity,  pursued  with  an  entire  abnegation 
of  self,  with  a  deep  enthusiasm,  under  a  calm  exterior,  and 
with  a  grace  and  gentleness  of  manner,  which,  joined  to  the 
force  of  his  inward  motives,  made  him,  I  think,  without  doubt 
the  most  winning  person  of  his  day.  It  was  for  about  fifteen 
years,  from  that  time  onwards,  that  he  and  I  lived  in  close, 
though  latterly  rarer  intercourse.  Yet  this  was  due,  on  my 
side,  not  to  any  faculty  of  attraction,  but  to  the  circumstance 
that  my  seat  in  Parliament,  and  my  rather  close  attention  to 


A   HELPFUL    FRIEND  95 

business,  put  me  in  the  way  of  dealing  with  many  questions 
relating  to  the  Church  and  the  universities  and  colleges,  on 
which  he  desired  freely  to  expand  his  energies  and  his  time. 

His  correspondence  with  me,  beginning  in  February,  1837, 
truly  exhibits  the  character  of  our  friendship,  as  one  founded 
in  common  interests,  of  a  kind  that  gradually  commanded 
more  and  more  of  the  public  attention,  but  that  with  him  were 
absolutely  paramount.  The  moving  power  was  principally  on 
his  side.  The  main  subjects  on  which  it  turned,  and  which 
also  formed  the  basis  of  general  intercourse,  were  as  follows  : 
First,  a  missionary  organization  for  the  province  of  Upper 
Canada.  Then  the  question  of  the  relations  of  Church  and 
State,  forced  into  prominence  at  that  time  by  a  variety  of 
causes,  and  among  them  not  least  by  a  series  of  lectures,  which 
Dr.  Chalmers  delivered  in  the  Hanover  Square  Rooms,  to 
distinguished  audiences,  with  a  profuse  eloquence,  and  with  a 
noble  and  almost  irresistible  fervour.  Those  lectures  drove 
me  upon  the  hazardous  enterprise  of  handling  the  same  sub- 
ject upon  what  I  thought  a  sounder  basis.  Your  father  warmly 
entered  into  this  design ;  and  bestowed  upon  a  careful  and 
prolonged  examination  of  this  work  in  MS.,  and  upon  a  search- 
ing yet  most  tender  criticism  of  its  details,  an  amount  of 
thought  and  labour  which  it  would,  I  am  persuaded,  have  been 
intolerable  to  any  man  to  supply,  except  for  one  for  whom 
each  and  every  day  as  it  arose  was  a  new  and  entire  sacrifice 
to  duty.  As  in  the  year  1838,  when  the  manuscript  was  ready, 
I  had  to  go  abroad  on  account  mainly  of  some  overstrain  upon 
the  eyes,  he  undertook  the  whole  labour  of  carrying  the  work 
through  the  press ;  and  he  even  commended  me,  as  you  will 
see  from  the  letters,  because  I  did  not  show  an  ungovernable 
impatience  of  his  aid. 

The  general  frame  of  his  mind  at  this  time,  in  October,  1838, 
will  be  pretty  clearly  gathered  from  a  letter  of  that  month  .  .  . 
written  when  he  had  completed  that  portion  of  his  labours. 
He  had  full,  unbroken  faith  in  the  Church  of  England,  as  a 
true  portion  of  the  Catholic  Church ;  to  her  he  had  vowed 
the  service  of  his  life;  all  his  desire  was  to  uphold  the  frame- 


96  MR.  GLADSTONE 

work  of  her  institutions,  and  to  renovate  their  vitality.  He 
pushed  her  claims,  you  may  find  from  the  letters,  further  than 
I  did  ;  but  the  difference  of  opinion  between  us  was  not  such 
as  to  prevent  our  cordial  co-operation  then  and  for  years  after- 
wards ;  though  in  using  such  a  term  I  seem  to  myself  guilty 
of  conceit  and  irreverence  to  the  dead,  for  I  well  know  that 
he  served  her  from  an  immeasurably  higher  level. 

I  do  not  know  whether  the  one  personal  influence,  which 
alone,  I  think,  ever  seriously  affected  his  career,  was  brought 
to  bear  upon  him  at  this  time  (1841).  But  the  movement  of 
his  mind,  from  this  juncture  onwards,  was  traceably  parallel 
to,  though  at  a  certain  distance  from,  that  of  Dr.  Newman. 
My  opinion  is  (I  put  it  no  higher)  that  the  Jerusalem  Bishopric 
snapped  the  link  which  bound  Dr.  Newman  to  the  English 
Church.  I  have  a  conviction  that  it  cut  away  the  ground  on 
which  your  father  had  hitherto  most  firmly  and  undoubtingly 
stood.  Assuredly,  from  1841  or  1842  onwards,  his  most  fond, 
most  faithful,  most  ideal  love  progressively  decayed,  and  doubt 
nestled  and  gnawed  in  his  soul.  He  was,  however,  of  a  nature 
in  which  levity  could  find  no  place.  Without  question,  he 
estimated  highly,  as  it  deserves  to  be  estimated,  the  tremendous 
nature  of  a  change  of  religious  profession,  as  between  the 
Church  of  England  and  the  Church  of  Rome  ;  a  change  di- 
viding asunder  bone  and  marrow.  Nearly  ten  years  passed,  I 
think,  from  1841,  during  which  he  never  wrote  or  spoke  to  me 
a.  positive  word  indicating  the  possibility  of  the  great  transi- 
tion. Long  he  harboured  his  misgivings  in  silence,  and  rumi- 
nated upon  them.  They  even,  it  seemed  to  me,  weighed 
heavily  upon  his  bodily  health.  I  remember  that  in  1843  I 
wrote  an  article  in  a  Review  which  referred  to  the  remarkable 
words  of  Archbishop  Laud  respecting  the  Church  of  Rome  as 
it  was  ;  and  applied  to  the  case  those  other  remarkable  words 
of  Lord  Chatham  respecting  America,  '  Never,  never,  never.' 
He  said  to  me,  half  playfully  (for  the  article  took  some  hold 
upon  his  sympathies), '  What,  Gladstone,  never,  never,  never  f 

It  must  have  been  about  this  time  that  I  had  another  con- 
versation with  him  about  religion,  of  v/hich,  again,  I  exactly 


A  TWOFOLD   BLOW  97 

recollect  the  spot.  Regarding  (forgive  me)  the  adoption  of 
the  Roman  religion  by  members  of  the  Church  of  England  as 
nearly  the  greatest  calamity  that  could  befall  Christian  faith 
in  this  country,  I  rapidly  became  alarmed  when  these  changes 
began  ;  and  very  long  before  the  great  luminary,  Dr.  Newman, 
drew  after  him,  it  may  well  be  said,  '  the  third  part  of  the  stars 
of  Heaven.'  This  alarm  I  naturally  and  freely  expressed  to 
the  man  upon  whom  I  most  relied,  your  father. 

On  the  occasion  to  which  I  refer  he  replied  to  me  with 
some  admission  that  they  were  calamitous;  'but,'  he  said, 
'  pray  remember  an  important  compensation,  in  the  influence 
which  the  English  mind  will  bring  to  bear  upon  the  Church 
of  Rome  itself.  Should  therp  be  in  this  country  any  consid- 
erable amount  of  secession  to  that  Church,  it  cannot  fail  to 
operate  sensibly  in  mitigating  whatever  gives  most  offence  in 
its  practices  or  temper.'  I  do  not  pretend  to  give  the  exact 
words,  but  their  spirit  and  effect  I  never  can  forget.  I  then 
thought  there  was  great  force  in  them. 

When  I  learned  that  he  was  to  be  married,  my  opinion  was 
that  he  had  only  allowed  his  thoughts  to  turn  in  the  direction 
of  the  bright  and  pure  attachment  he  had  formed,  because  the 
object  to  which  they  had  first  been  pledged  had  vanished  or 
been  hidden  from  his  view. 

I  have  just  spoken  of  your  father  as  the  man  on  whom  I 
most  relied  ;  and  so  it  was.  I  relied  on  one  other,  also  a  re- 
markable man,  who  took  the  same  course,  at  nearly  the  same 
time ;  but  on  him  most,  from  my  opinion  of  his  sagacity. 
From  the  correspondence  of  1838  you  might  suppose. that  he 
relied  upon  me,  that  he  had  almost  given  himself  to  me.  But 
whatever  expressions  his  warm  feelings  combined  with  his 
humility  may  have  prompted,  it  really  was  not  so ;  nor  ought 
it  to  have  been  so,  for  I  always  felt  and  knew  my  own  position 
beside  him  to  be  one  of  mental  as  well  as  moral  inferiority.  I 
cannot  remember  any  occasion  on  which  I  exercised  an  in- 
fluence over  him.  I  remember  many  on  which  I  tried  ;  and 
especially  when  I  saw  his  mind  shaken,  and,  so  to  speak,  on 
the  slide.  But  these  attempts  (of  which  you  may  possibly 
7 


98  MR.  GLADSTONE 

have  some  written  record),  completely  failed,  and  drove  him 
into  reserve.  Never,  on  any  one  occasion,  would  he  enter 
freely  into  the  question  with  me.  I  think  the  fault  lay  much 
on  my  side.  My  touch  was  not  fine  enough  for  his  delicate 
spirit.  But  I  do  not  conceal  from  you  that  1  think  there  was 
a  certain  amount  of  fault  on  his  side  also.  Notwithstanding 
what  I  have  said  of  his  humility,  notwithstanding  what  Dr. 
Newman  has  most  truly  said  of  his  self-renouncing  turn,  and 
total  freedom  from  ambition,  there  was  in  him,  I  think,  a 
subtle  form  of  self-will,  which  led  him,  where  he  had  a  fore- 
gone conclusion  or  a  latent  tendency,  to  indulge  it,  and  to  re- 
fuse to  throw  his  mind  into  free  partnership  with  others  upon 
questions  of  doubt  and  difficulty.  Yet  I  must  after  all  admit 
his  right  to  be  silent,  unless  where  he  thought  he  was  to  re- 
ceive real  aid  ;  and  of  this  he  alone  could  be  the  judge. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  precise  causes  of  the  reti- 
cence to  which  I  have  referred  (and  it  is  possible  that  physi- 
cal weakness  was  among  them),  the  character  of  our  friend- 
ship had  during  these  later  years  completely  changed.  It  was 
originally  formed  in  common  and  very  absorbing  interests.  He 
was  not  of  those  shallow  souls  which  think,  or  persuade  them- 
selves they  think,  that  such  a  relation  can  continue  in  vigour 
and  in  fruitfulness  when  its  daily  bread  has  been  taken  away. 
The  feeling  of  it  indeed  remained  on  both  sides,  as  you  will 
see.  On  my  side,  I  may  say  that  it  became  more  intense  ;  but 
only  according  to  that  perversity,  or  infirmity,  of  human  nat- 
ure, according  to  which  we  seem  to  love  truly  only  when  we 
lose.  My  affection  for  him,  during  those  later  years  before  his 
change,  was,  I  may  almost  say,  intense  ;  and  there  was  hardly 
anything,  I  think,  which  he  could  have  asked  me  to  do,  and 
which  I  would  not  have  done.  But  as  I  saw  more  and  more 
through  the  dim  light  what  was  to  happen,  it  became  more 
and  more  like  the  affection  which  is  felt  for  one  departed. 

As  far  as  narrative  is  concerned,  I  am  now  at  the  close. 
In  1850  came  the  discussions  and  alarms  connected  with  the 
Gorham  judgment ;  and  came  also  the  last  flickering  of  the 
flame  of  his  attachment  to  the  Church  of  England.     There- 


THE   PARTING   OF  THE   WAYS  99 

after  I  never  found  myself  able  to  turn  to  account  as  an  open- 
ing any  word  he  spoke  or  wrote  to  me. 

It  will  be  easily  seen,  from  the  foregoing  extracts,  that 
the  change  which  was  now  impending  cut  Mr.  Gladstone 
to  the  quick.  '  I  should  say,'  writes  one  who  knows  him 
well,  '  that  it  touched  the  depths  of  his  soul  almost  more 
than  anything  which  has  happened  since.'  And,  as  so 
often  happens  in  human  life,  the  sorrow  did  not  come 
alone.  Throughout  this  period  of  transition  Mr.  Hope  was 
in  close  association  with  Archdeacon  Manning,  who  shared 
his  worst  misgivings  about  the  character  and  destinies  of 
the  Church  of  England.  They  advanced  with  even  steps 
towards  the  inevitable  goal.  In  November  the  Archdea- 
con resigned  his  preferments,  and  on  the  Passion  Sunday 
next  ensuing  he  and  Mr.  Scott  were  together  received 
into  the  Roman  Church.  To  their  friend  who  remained 
behind,  this  twofold  secession  was  an  overwhelming  grief. 
Mr.  Gladstone  said,  'I  felt  as  if  I  had  lost  my  two  eyes.' 
It  was  by  no  wish  of  his  that  his  intimacy  with  Mr.  Hope 
now  came  to  an  end.  The  decision  was  taken  by  the 
other.  In  reply  to  a  letter  expressing  Mr.  Gladstone's  un- 
changed feelings,  Mr.  Hope  writes :  '  It  would  be  hardly 
possible  for  either  of  us  to  attempt  (except  under  one  con- 
dition, for  which  I  daily  pray)  the  restoration  of  entire  in- 
timacy.' This  letter  was  acknowledged  by  Mr.  Gladstone 
in  these  beautiful  and  moving  words : — 

6  Carlton  Gardens:  June  22,  1851. 
My  dear  Hope, — Upon  the  point  most  prominently  put  in 
your  welcome  letter  I  will  only  say  you  have  not  misconstrued 
me.  Affection  which  is  fed  by  intercourse,  and  above  all  by 
co-operation  for  sacred  ends,  has  little  need  of  verbal  expres- 
sion, but  such  expression  is  deeply  ennobling  when  active  re- 


lOO  MR.  GLADSTONE 

lations  have  changed.  It  is  no  matter  of  merit  to  me  to  feel 
strongly  on  the  subject  of  that  change.  It  may  be  little  bet- 
ter than  pure  selfishness.  I  have  too  good  reason  to  know 
what  this  year  has  cost  me  ;  and  so  little  hope  have  I  that  the 
places  now  vacant  can  be  filled  up  for  me,  that  the  marked 
character  of  these  events  in  reference  to  myself  rather  teaches 
me  this  lesson — the  work  to  which  I  had  aspired  is  reserved 
for  other  and  better  men.  And  if  that  be  the  Divine  will,  I 
so  entirely  recognize  its  fitness  that  the  grief  would  so  far  be 
small  to  me  were  I  alone  concerned.  The  pain,  the  wonder, 
and  the  mystery  is  this — that  you  should  have  refused  the 
higher  vocation  you  had  before  you.  The  same  words,  and 
all  the  same  words,  I  should  use  of  Manning  too.  Forgive 
me  for  giving  utterance  to  what  I  believe  myself  to  see  and 
know ;  I  will  not  proceed  a  step  further  in  that  direction. 

There  is  one  word,  and  one  only  in  your  letter  that  I  do 
not  interpret  closely.  Separated  we  are,  but  I  hope  and  think 
not  yet  estranged.  Were  I  more  estranged  I  should  bear  the 
separation  better.  If  estrangement  is  to  come  I  know  not, 
but  it  will  only  be,  I  think,  from  causes  the  operation  of  which 
is  still  in  its  infancy — causes  not  affecting  me.  Why  should  I 
be  estranged  from  you  ?  I  honour  you  even  in  what  I  think 
your  error;  why,  then,  should  my  feelings  to  you  alter  in 
anything  else  ?  It  seems  to  me  as  though,  in  these  fearful 
times,  events  were  more  and  more  growing  too  large  for  our 
puny  grasp,  and  that  we  should  the  more  look  for  and  trust 
the  Divine  purpose  in  them,  when  we  find  they  have  wholly 
passed  beyond  the  reach  and  measure  of  our  own.  'The  Lord 
is  in  His  holy  temple :  let  all  the  earth  keep  silence  before 
Him.'  The  very  afflictions  of  the  present  time  are  a  sign  of 
joy  to  follow.  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done,  is  still 
our  prayer  in  common  :  the  same  prayer,  in  the  same  sense ; 
and  a  prayer  which  absorbs  every  other.  That  is  for  the  fut- 
ure :  for  the  present  we  have  to  endure,  to  trust,  and  to  pray 
that  each  day  may  bring  its  strength  with  its  burden,  and  its 
lamp  for  its  gloom. 

Ever  yours  with  unaltered  afTection, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 


AN  ABIDING  SORROW  lOI 

Writing  twenty-two  years  afterwards  to  Mrs,  Maxwell- 
Scott,  Mr,  Gladstone  says  of  the  letter  to  which  this  was 
the  reply : 

It  was  the  epitaph  of  our  friendship,  which  continued  to 
hve,  but  only,  or  almost  only,  as  it  lives  between  those  who 
inhabit  separate  worlds.  On  no  day  since  that  date,  I  think, 
was  he  absent  from  my  thoughts ;  and  now  I  can  scarcely  tear 
myself  from  the  fascination  of  writing  about  him.  And  so, 
too,  you  will  feel  the  fascination  of  reading  about  him  ;  and  it 
will  serve  to  relieve  the  weariness  with  which  otherwise  you 
would  have  toiled  through  so  long  a  letter.  ...  If  anything 
which  it  contains  has  hurt  you,  recollect  the  chasm  which 
separates  our  points  of  view  ;  recollect  that  what  came  to  him 
as  light  and  blessing  and  emancipation,  had  never  offered  it- 
self to  me  otherwise  than  as  a  temptation  and  a  sin  ;  recollect 
that  when  he  found  what  he  held  his  'pearl  of  great  price,' 
his  discovery  was  to  me  beyond  what  I  could  describe,  not 
only  a  shock  and  a  grief,  but  a  danger  too.  I  having  given  you 
my  engagement,  you  having  accepted  it,  I  have  felt  that  I 
must  above  all  things  be  true,  and  that  I  could  only  be  true 
by  telling  you  everything.  If  I  have  traversed  some  of  the 
ground  in  sadness,  I  now  turn  to  the  brighter  thought  of  his 
present  light  and  peace  and  progress ;  may  they  be  his  more 
and  more  abundantly,  in  that  world  where  the  shadows  that 
our  sins  and  follies  cast  no  longer  darken  the  aspect  and  glory 
of  the  truth ;  and  may  God  ever  bless  you,  the  daughter  of 
my  friend  ! 

But  it  is  time  to  return  to  the  secular  sphere. 


102  MR.  GLADSTONE 


CHAPTER  V 

Don  Pacifico — Civis  Romanus — The  Neapolitan  prisons — The  Papal 
aggression — Triumph  over  Mr.  Disraeli — The  Coalition  Govern- 
ment— Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer — First  Budget. 

This  year — 1850 — was  marked  by  the  memorable  debate 
which  is  associated  with  the  name  of  Don  Pacifico.  The 
circumstances  from  which  tliat  debate  ultimately  proceeded 
were  as  little  dignified  or  striking  as  could  easily  be  sup- 
posed. Don  Pacifico  was  a  Maltese  Jew,  a  British  subject 
domiciled  at  Athens.  He  happened  to  become  obnoxious 
to  the  Athenian  mob,  who  on  April  4,  1847,  wrecked  and 
robbed  his  house.  Don  Pacifico  appealed  to  the  Greek 
Government  for  compensation.  He  claimed  nearly  thirty- 
two  thousand  pounds  for  the  loss  of  his  effects,  among 
which  a  peculiarly  sumptuous  bedstead  figured  largely  in 
the  public  view.  The  Greek  Government  were  poor  and 
were  dilatory,  and  Don  Pacifico's  claim  remained  unheeded. 
At  the  same  time  the  English  Government,  or  at  any  rate 
the  Foreign  Secretary,  Lord  Palmerston,  had  other  quar- 
rels with  the  Greek  Government.  Some  land  belonging  to 
an  Englishman  resident  in  Athens  had  been  taken  by  the 
Government,  and  they  had  offered  the  owner  what  he  con- 
sidered an  insufficient  compensation.  Some  Ionian  sub- 
jects of  the  Queen  had  suffered  hardship  at  the  hands  of 


DON   PACIFICO  103 

the  Greek  authorities.  A  midshipman  belonging  to  one 
of  her  Majesty's  ships  had  been  arrested  by  mistake  at 
Patros.  None  of  the  incidents,  taken  by  themselves,  were 
of  the  least  importance ;  but,  unfortunately,  Lord  Palmer- 
ston  had  persuaded  himself  that  the  French  Minister  at 
Athens  was  plotting  against  English  interests  there,  and 
was  egging  on  the  Greek  Government  to  disregard  our 
claims.  This  was  enough.  The  outrage  on  Don  Pacif- 
ico's  bedstead  remained  the  head  and  front  of  Greek 
offending,  but  Lord  Palmerston  included  all  the  other 
slights,  blunders,  and  delays  of  justice  in  one  sweeping  in- 
dictment; made  the  private  claims  into  a  national  demand  ; 
and  peremptorily  informed  the  Greek  Government  that 
they  must  pay  what  was  demanded  of  them  within  a  given 
time.  The  Government  hesitated,  and  the  British  fleet 
was  ordered  to  the  Piraeus,  and  seized  all  the  Greek  ves- 
sels which  were  found  in  the  waters.  Russia  and  France 
took  umbrage  at  this  high-handed  proceeding,  and  cham- 
pioned Greece.  Lord  Palmerston  informed  them  that  it 
was  none  of  their  business,  and  stood  firm.  The  French 
ambassador  was  withdrawn  from  London,  and  for  a  while 
the  peace  of  Europe  was  menaced. 

The  Tories,  always  ready  to  assail  in  opposition  the 
blustering  policy  which  they  practise  in  office,  made  a  vio- 
lent attack  upon  Lord  Palmerston.  In  the  House  of 
Lords,  Lord  Stanley  carried  a  resolution  expressing  regret 
that  '  various  claims  against  the  Greek  Government,  doubt- 
ful in  point  of  justice  or  exaggerated  in  amount,  have  been 
enforced  by  coercive  measures,  directed  against  the  com- 
merce and  people  of  Greece,  and  calculated  to  endanger 
the  continuance  of  friendly  relations  with  foreign  Powers.' 
It  was  necessary  to  meet  the  advance  vote  of  the  Lords  by 


104  ^^^-  GLADSTONE 

a  counterblast  in  the  Commons,  and  Mr.  Roebuck,  an  in- 
dependent Liberal,  was  put  up  to  move  that  the  principles 
which  had  governed  the  foreign  policy  of  the  Government 
were  '  calculated  to  maintain  the  honour  and  dignity  of 
this  country,  and  in  times  of  unexampled  difficulty  to  pre- 
serve peace  between  England  and  the  various  nations  of 
the  world.'  The  debate  began  on  June  24,  1850.  In  reply 
to  Mr.  Roebuck,  Lord  Palmerston  spoke  with  extraordi- 
nary force  and  skill.  His  speech  lasted  nearly  five  hours. 
'  He  spoke,'  Mr.  Gladstone  said,  'from  the  dusk  of  one  day 
to  the  dawn  of  the  next.'  He  defended  his  policy  at  every 
point.  He  declared  that  in  every  step  which  he  had 
taken,  however  high-handed  it  might  seem,  he  had  been 
influenced  by  the  sole  desire  that  the  meanest,  the  poor- 
est, even  the  most  disreputable,  subject  of  the  English 
Crown  should  be  defended  by  the  whole  might  of  England 
against  foreign  oppression.  He  reminded  the  House  of 
all  that  was  implied  in  the  Roman  boast,  Ct'vis  Romanus 
sum,  and  he  urged  the  House  to  make  it  clear  that  a 
British  subject,  in  whatever  land  he  might  be,  should  feel 
confident  that  the  watchful  eye  and  the  strong  arm  of  Eng- 
land would  protect  him.  This  was  irresistible.  Civis  Ro- 
manus settled  the  business.  It  was  in  vain  that  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, after  reviewing  the  legal  and  constitutional  aspects 
of  the  case,  fastened  upon  this  phrase  with  all  his  rhetorical 
force,  and  demonstrated  its  'inapplicability  to  the  condi- 
tion and  claims  of  an  English  citizen.' 

Sir,  great  as  is  the  influence  and  power  of  Britain,  she  can- 
not afford  to  follow,  for  any  length  of  time,  a  self-isolating  pol- 
icy. It  would  be  a  contravention  of  the  law  of  nature  and  of 
God,  if  it  were  possible  for  any  single  nation  of  Christendom 
to  emancipate  itself  from  the  obligations  which  bind  all  other 


1 


'CIVIS    ROMANUS'  105 

nations,  and  to  arrogate,  in  the  face  of  mankind,  a  position  of 
peculiar  privilege.  And  now  I  will  grapple  with  the  noble 
lord  on  the  ground  which  he  selected  for  himself,  in  the  most 
triumphant  portion  of  his  speech,  by  his  reference  to  those 
emphatic  words,  Civts  Romaniis  sum.  He  vaunted,  amidst 
the  cheers  of  his  supporters,  that  under  his  Administration  an 
Englishman  should  be,  throughout  the  world,  what  the  citizen 
of  Rome  had  been.  What,  then,  sir,  was  a  Roman  citizen  ? 
He  was  the  member  of  a  privileged  caste ;  he  belonged  to  a 
conquering  race,  to  a  nation  that  held  all  others  bound  down 
by  the  strong  arm  of  power.  For  him  there  was  to  be  an  excep- 
tional system  of  law,  for  him  principles  were  to  be  asserted, 
and  by  him  rights  were  to  be  enjoyed,  that  were  denied  to  the 
rest  of  the  world.  Is  such,  then,  the  view  of  the  noble  lord 
as  to  the  relation  which  is  to  subsist  between  England  and 
other  countries  ?  Does  he  make  the  claim  for  us  that  we  are 
to  be  uplifted  upon  a  platform  high  above  the  standing- 
ground  of  all  other  nations.'  It  is,  indeed,  too  clear,  not  only 
from  the  expressions  but  from  the  whole  tone  of  the  speech 
of  the  noble  viscount,  that  too  much  of  this  notion  is  lurking 
in  his  mind  ;  that  he  adopts,  in  part,  that  vain  conception  that 
we,  forsooth,  have  a  mission  to  be  the  censors  of  vice  and  foll)^, 
of  abuse  and  imperfection,  among  the  other  countries  of  the 
world ;  that  we  are  to  be  the  universal  schoolmasters ;  and 
that  all  those  who  hesitate  to  recognize  our  office  can  be  gov- 
erned only  by  prejudice  or  personal  animosity,  and  should 
have  the  blind  war  of  diplomacy  forthwith  declared  against 
them.  And  certainly,  if  the  business  of  a  Foreign  Secretary 
properly  were  to  carry  on  diplomatic  wars,  all  must  admit 
that  the  noble  lord  is  a  master  in  the  discharge  of  his  func- 
tions. What,  sir,  ought  a  Foreign  Secretary  to  be  ?  Is  he  to 
be  like  some  gallant  knight  at  a  tournament  of  old,  pricking 
forth  into  the  lists,  armed  at  all  points,  confiding  in  his  sinews 
and  his  skill,  challenging  all  comers  for  the  sake  of  honour, 
and  having  no  other  duty  than  to  lay  as  many  as  possible  of 
his  adversaries  sprawling  in  the  dust  ?  If  such  is  the  idea  of 
a  good  Foreign  Secretary,  I,  for  one,  would  vote  to  the  noble 
lord  his  present  appointment  for  his  life.     But,  sir,  I  do  not 


I06  MR.  GLADSTONE 

understand  the  duty  of  a  Secretary  for  Foreign  Aflfairs  to  be 
of  such  a  character.  I  understand  it  to  be  his  duty  to  con- 
ciliate peace  with  dignity.  I  think  it  to  be  the  very  first  of 
all  his  duties  studiously  to  observe,  and  to  exalt  in  honour 
among  mankind,  that  great  code  of  principles  which  is  termed 
the  law  of  nations,  which  the  honourable  and  learned  member 
for  Sheffield  has  found,  indeed,  to  be  very  vague  in  their  nat- 
ure, and  greatly  dependent  on  the  discretion  of  each  partic- 
ular country,  but  in  which  I  find,  on  the  contrary,  a  great  and 
noble  monument  of  human  wisdom,  founded  on  the  combined 
dictates  of  reason  and  experience,  a  precious  inheritance  be- 
queathed to  us  by  the  generations  that  have  gone  before  us, 
and  a  firm  foundation  on  which  we  must  take  care  to  build 
whatever  it  may  be  our  part  to  add  to  their  acquisitions,  if, 
indeed,  we  wish  to  maintain  and  to  consolidate  the  brother- 
hood of  nations  and  to  promote  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the 
world. 

Sir,  I  say  the  policy  of  the  noble  lord  tends  to  encourage 
and  confirm  m  us  that  which  is  our  besetting  fault  and  weak- 
ness, both  as  a  nation  and  as  individuals.  Let  an  Englishman 
travel  where  he  will  as  a  private  person,  he  is  found  in  general 
to  be  upright,  high-minded,  brave,  liberal,  and  true  ;  but,  with 
all  this,  foreigners  are  too  often  sensible  of  something  that 
galls  them  m  his  presence,  and  I  apprehend  it  is  because  he 
has  too  great  a  tendency  to  self-esteem — too  little  disposition 
to  regard  the  feelings,  the  habits,  and  the  ideas  of  others. 
Sir,  I  find  this  characteristic  too  plainly  legible  in  the  policy 
of  the  noble  lord.  I  doubt  not  that  use  will  be  made  of  our 
present  debate  to  work  upon  this  peculiar  weakness  of  the 
English  mind.  The  people  will  be  told  that  those  who  op- 
pose the  motion  are  governed  by  personal  motives,  have  no 
regard  for  public  principles,  no  enlarged  ideas  of  national  pol- 
icy. You  will  take  your  case  before  a  favourable  jury,  and 
you  think  to  gain  your  verdict ,  but,  sir,  let  the  House  of 
Commons  be  warned — let  it  warn  itself — against  all  illusions. 
There  is  in  this  case  also  a  course  of  appeal.  There  is  an  ap- 
peal, such  as  the  honourable  and  learned  member  for  Sheffield 


AN  APPEAL   TO   CONSCIENCE  lO/ 

has  made,  from  the  one  House  of  Parliament  to  the  other. 
There  is  a  further  appeal  from  this  House  of  Parliament  to 
the  people  of  England ;  but  lastly,  there  is  also  an  appeal 
from  the  people  of  England  to  the  general  sentiment  of  the 
civilized  world ,  and  I,  for  my  part,  am  of  opinion  that  Eng- 
land will  stand  shorn  of  a  chief  part  of  her  glory  and  pride  if 
she  shall  be  found  to  have  separated  herself,  through  the  pol- 
icy she  pursues  abroad,  from  the  moral  support  which  the 
general  and  fixed  convictions  of  mankind  afford — if  the  day 
shall  come  when  she  may  continue  to  excite  the  wonder  and 
the  fear  of  other  nations,  but  in  which  she  shall  have  no  part 
in  their  affection  and  regard. 

No,  sir,  let  it  not  be  so  ,  let  us  recognize,  and  recognize  with 
frankness,  the  equality  of  the  weak  with  the  strong ,  the  prin- 
ciples of  brotherhood  among  nations,  and  of  their  sacred  in- 
dependence. When  we  are  asking  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  rights  which  belong  to  our  fellow-subjects  resident  in 
Greece,  let  us  do  as  we  would  be  done  by,  and  let  us  pay  all 
respect  to  a  feeble  State,  and  to  the  infancy  of  free  institu- 
tions, which  we  should  desire  and  should  exact  from  others 
towards  their  maturity  and  their  strength.  Let  us  refrain 
from  all  gratuitous  and  arbitrary  meddling  in  the  internal 
concerns  of  other  States,  even  as  we  should  resent  the  same 
interference  if  it  were  attempted  to  be  practised  towards  our- 
selves. If  the  noble  lord  has  indeed^acted  on  these  principles, 
let  the  Government  to  which  he  belongs  have  your  verdict 
in  its  favor,  but  if  he  has  departed  from  them,  as  I  contend, 
and  as  I  humbly  think  and  urge  upon  you  that  it  has  been 
too  amply  proved,  then  the  House  of  Commons  must  not 
shrink  from  the  performance  of  its  duty  under  whatever  ex- 
pectations of  momentary  obloquy  or  reproach,  because  we 
shall  have  done  what  is  right ;  we  shall  enjoy  the  peace  of 
our  own  consciences,  and  receive,  whether  a  little  sooner  or  a 
little  later,  the  approval  of  the  public  voice  for  having  entered 
our  solemn  protest  against  a  system  of  policy  which  we  be- 
lieve, nay,  which  we  know,  whatever  may  be  its  first  aspect, 
must,  of  necessity,  in  its  final  results  be  unfavourable  even 
to  the  security  of  British  subjects  resident  abroad,  which  it 


I08  MR.  GLADSTONE 

professes  so  much  to  study— unfavourable  to  the  dignity  of  the 
country,  which  the  motion  of  the  honourable  and  learned  mem- 
ber asserts  it  preserves — and  equally  unfavourable  to  that  other 
great  and  sacred  object,  which  also  it  suggests  to  our  recollec- 
tion, the  maintenance  of  peace  with  the  nations  of  the  world. 

The  speech  from  which  these  citations  are  made  de- 
serves careful  study.  Lord  Palmerston  himself  admitted 
that  it  was  '  a  first-rate  performance.'  In  width  and  accu- 
racy of  information,  debating  skill,  logical  grip,  and  force 
of  rhetoric  it  seems  to  mark  a  distinct  advance  upon  the 
speaker's  previous  efforts.  It  is  indeed  a  remarkably  per- 
fect composition,  finely  conceived  and  finely  executed. 
But,  apart  from  its  merits  as  a  work  of  art,  it  is  notable  as 
exemplifying  at  a  comparatively  early  period,  and  in  high 
perfection,  two  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  most  conspicuous  quali- 
ties, which  have  grown  with  his  growth  and  strengthened 
with  his  strength,  and  have  been  attended  by  important 
and  opposing  consequences  The  first  of  these  is  his  high 
and  even  austere  morality.  He  appeals  to  the  most  au- 
gust of  all  tribunals,  to  'the  law  of  nature  and  of  God.' 
As  a  test  of  a  foreign  policy  he  asks,  not  whether  it  is 
striking,  or  brilliant,  or  successful,  but  whether  it  is  right. 
Is  it  consistent  with  moral  principle  and  public  duty ,  with 
the  chivalry  due  from  the  strong  to  the  weak ;  with  the 
'principles  of  brotherhood  among  nations,  and  of  their 
sacred  independence ' .''  It  is  this  habit  of  Mr.  Gladstone's 
mind  which  has  done  so  much  to  secure  him  the  enthusi- 
astic veneration  of  his  followers,  who  loathe  the  savage  law 
of  brute  force,  who  recognize  the  opinion  of  moral  princi- 
ple in  international  relations,  and  who  feel  it  a  personal 
pain  and  degradation  when  England  is  forced  to  figure  as 
the  swashbuckler  of  Europe. 


'  PRESTIGE  '  109 

But  if  this  element  has  been  a  main  factor  in  Mr. 
Gladstone's  hold  over  the  affections  of  his  disciples,  and 
thereby  of  his  public  success,  it  is  not  difficult  to  discern, 
in  the  second  of  the  citations  given  above,  the  operation 
of  another  element  which  has  done  much  to  mar  his  popu- 
larity, to  limit  his  range  of  influence,  and  to  set  great 
masses  of  his  countrymen  in  opposition  to  his  policy. 
This  is  his  tendency  to  belittle  England,  to  dwell  on  the 
faults  and  defects  of  Englishmen,  to  extol  and  magnify  the 
virtues  and  graces  of  other  nations,  and  to  ignore  the 
homely  prejudice  of  patriotism.  He  has  frankly  told  us 
that  he  does  not  know  the  meaning  of  'prestige,'  and  an 
English  Minister  who  makes  that  confession  has  yet  to 
learn  one  of  the  governing  sentiments  of 

'An  old  and  haughty  nation  proud  in  arms.' 

Whether  this  peculiarity  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  mind  can 
be  referred  to  the  fact  that  he  has  not  a  drop  of  English 
blood  in  his  body  is  perhaps  a  fanciful  enquiry,  but  its  con- 
sequences are  palpable  enough  in  the  vulgar  belief  that  he 
is  indifferent  to  the  interests  and  honour  of  the  country 
which  he  has  three  times  ruled,  and  that  his  love  of  Eng- 
land is  swamped  and  lost  in  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity 
— unquestionably  a  nobler  sentiment,  but  unfortunately  one 
which  has  little  power  to  sway  the  average  Englishman. 
As  it  has  been  since  seen  in  the  disputes  about  the  Ala- 
bama, and  the  Eastern  question,  and  in  the  controversy 
about  Home  Rule,  so  it  was  in  the  debate  on  Don  Pacifico. 
For  the  moment,  Civis  Roinatncs  carried  all  before  it. 
Brotherhood,  humanity,  and  chivalry  went  to  the  wall,  and 
Lord  Palmerston  secured  a  majority  of  forty-six. 

Sir  Robert  Peel  had  spoken  in  the  debate.     He  praised 


no  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Palmerston's  speech  as  a  parliamentary  performance,  but 
gravely  rebuked  the  poHcy  which  that  speech  defended. 
The  division  was  taken  in  the  early  morning  of  June  29. 
In  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  he  had  a  fall  from 
his  horse,  and  received  injuries  which  proved  fatal.  He 
died  on  July  2.  It  fell  to  Mr.  Gladstone's  lot  to  pronounce 
in  the  House  of  Commons  a  eulogy  of  his  departed  chief. 
His  speech  is  full  of  pathos  and  eloquence,  and,  with  its 
appropriate  quotation  from  '  Marmion '  is  a  favourable 
specimen  of  that  style  of  memorial  oratory,  at  once  digni- 
fied and  moving,  in  which  he  excels.  He  spoke  of  the 
hope  and  expectation  which  had  been  generally  entertained 
that  Sir  Robert  Peel  would  '  still  have  been  spared  to  ren- 
der to  his  country  the  most  essential  services.'  One  of 
those  services  would  have  been  the  consolidation  and  guid- 
ance of  that  brilliant  group  of  gifted  and  high-minded  men 
who  had  followed  him  in  his  momentous  transition  from 
Protection  to  Free  Trade.  The  death  of  Sir  Robert  Peel 
dissolved  the  Peelite  party.  With  the  other  members  of 
that  party  we  need  not  concern  ourselves ;  Mr.  Gladstone 
is  our  business.  Another  stage  had  been  reached  in  the 
process  which  was  to  convert  him  into  a  Liberal. 

In  the  winter  of  1850-1,  Mr.  Gladstone  spent  be- 
tween three  and  four  months  at  Naples.  He  was  taken 
there  by  the  illness  of  one  of  his  children,  for  whom  a 
southern  climate  had  been  recommended.  It  is  not  a 
little  remarkable  that  the  statesman  who  had  so  lately  and 
so  vigorously  denounced  the  'vain  conception  that  we, 
forsooth,  have  a  mission  to  be  the  censors  of  vice  and 
folly,  of  abuse  and  imperfection,  among  the  other  coun- 
tries of  the  world,'  should  now  have  found  himself  irre- 
sistibly impelled  by  conscience  and  humanity  to  undertake 


THE    NEAPOLITAN    PRISONS  III 

a  signal  and  effective  crusade  against  the  domestic  ad- 
ministration of  a  friendly  Power.  During  his  residence  at 
Naples,  he  learned  that  more  than  half  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  who  had  followed  the  party  of  opposition,  had 
been  banished  or  imprisoned  ;  that  a  large  number,  prob- 
ably not  less  than  twenty  thousand,  of  the  citizens  had 
been  imprisoned  on  charges  of  political  disaffection,  and 
that  in  prison  they  were  subjected  to  the  grossest  cruelties. 
Mr.  Gladstone's  humanity  was  deeply  stirred  by  these  tales 
of  oppression  and  wrong,  and  he  determined  to  examine 
them  at  first  hand.  So,  to  quote  Lord  Palmerston's  phrase, 
'instead  of  confining  himself  to  those  amusements  that 
abound  in  Naples,  instead  of  diving  into  volcanoes  and 
exploring  excavated  cities,  we  see  him  going  to  courts  of 
justice,  visiting  prisons,  descending  into  dungeons,  and  ex- 
amining great  numbers  of  the  cases  of  unfortunate  victims 
of  illegality  and  injustice,  with  a  view  afterwards  to  enlist 
public  opinion  in  the  endeavour  to  remedy  those  abuses.' 

The  result  of  these  investigations  Mr.  Gladstone  gave  to 
the  world  in  a  letter  which,  on  April  7,  185 1,  he  addressed 
to  Lord  Aberdeen.  In  this  letter  he  brings  an  elaborate, 
detailed,  and  horrible  indictment  against  the  rulers  of  Na- 
ples, and  especially  as  regards  the  arrangements  of  their 
prisons  and  the  treatment  of  persons  confined  in  them  for 
political  offences.  He  denounces  the  Neapolitan  Govern- 
ment, in  indignant  words  which  he  had  heard  on  the  spot, 
as  la  negazione  di  Dio  eretta  a  sistema  di  goverjio.  The  pub- 
lication of  this  letter  caused  a  wide  sensation  in  England 
and  abroad,  and  profoundly  agitated  the  court  of  Naples. 
In  reply  to  a  question  in  the  House  of  Commons,  Lord 
Palmerston  accepted  and  adopted  Mr.  Gladstone's  state- 
ment, expressed  keen  sympathy  with  the  cause  which  he 


112  MR.    GLADSTONE 

had  espoused,  and  sent  a  copy  of  his  letter  to  the  Queen's 
representative  at  every  court  of  Europe.  A  second  letter 
and  a  third  followed,  and  their  effect,  though  for  a  while 
retarded,  was  unmistakably  felt  in  the  subsequent  revolu- 
tion which  created  a  free  and  united  Italy. 

When  Mr.  Gladstone  returned  from  Italy  to  England  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Session  of  1S51,  he  found  the  country 
in  convulsions  of  Protestant  fury.  In  the  preceding  Sep- 
tember the  Pope  had  issued  Letters  Apostolic,  establishing 
a  Roman  Hierarchy  in  England,  and  purporting  to  map 
out  the  country  into  papal  dioceses.  This  act  of  aggression 
was  met  by  a  storm  of  public  indignation.  People  who 
had  no  particular  religion  of  their  own  found  a  certain 
satisfaction  to  their  conscience  in  denouncing  the  religion 
of  others.  Honest  Protestants  were  genuinely  indignant  at 
what  they  regarded  as  an  attack  upon  the  Reformed  Faith. 
Well-instructed  Anglicans  resented  an  act  which  practically 
denied  the  jurisdiction  and  authority  of  the  Church  of 
England.  Devotees  of  the  British  Constitution  were  irri- 
tated by  an  interference  with  the  royal  prerogative ;  and 
fervent  patriots  were  enraged  by  the  gratuitous  intrusion 
of  a  foreign  potentate.  No  element  of  combustion  was 
wanted.  Public  meetings  were  held  everywhere,  fiery 
speeches  made,  and  heroic  resolutions  passed.  Every 
platform  and  every  pulpit  rang  with  variations  on  the  fine 
old  British  air  of  '  No  Popery !'  and  even  Covent  Garden 
Theatre  and  the  Lord  Mayor's  banquet  at  the  Guildhall 
re-echoed  the  strain  in  Shakespearian  quotations. 

The  Prime  Minister,  Lord  John  Russell,  had  published 
one  of  his  celebrated  letters,  addressed  this  time  to  the 
Bishop  of  Durham,  and,  not  content  with  rebuking  and  de- 
fying the  Pope,  had  gone  out  of  his  way  to  denounce  and 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   TITLES   BILL  II3 

insult  the  whole  High  Church  party  as  the  secret  allies 
and  fellow-workers  of  Rome.  As  soon  as  Parliament  met, 
he  introduced  the  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill,  designed  to 
prevent  the  assumption  by  Roman  Catholic  prelates  of  titles 
taken  from  any  territory  or  place  in  the  United  Kingdom. 
Penalties  were  attached  to  the  use  of  such  titles,  and  all 
acts  done  by,  and  bequests  made  to,  persons  under  them 
were  to  be  void.  The  Bill  was  not  well  received ;  it  was 
airily  lampooned  by  Mr.  Disraeli,  and  solemnly  denounced 
by  Mr.  Gladstone.  It  was  condemned  on  one  side  as  too 
stringent,  on  another  as  too  mild.  The  difficulty  of  apply- 
ing it  to  Ireland,  where  the  system  which  it  condemned 
had  long  been  in  full  force,  necessitated  material  alterations 
in  it,  and  each  alteration  added  force  to  the  criticisms  of 
opponents.  Those  who  thought  the  Bill  too  mild  were  in- 
dignant at  concessions  which  made  it  milder;  those  who 
resented  it  as  a  violation  of  religious  liberty  pointed  out 
triumphantly  that  it  could  no  longer  be  justified  even  as 
a  temporary  expedient  designed  to  serve  a  practical  end. 
Somehow  the  Bill  scrambled  through  Parliament,  and  be- 
came simultaneously  a  law  and  a  dead  letter.  Nobody 
obeyed  it,  or  suffered  for  disobeying  it,  and  twenty  years 
afterwards  it  was  quietly  repealed  at  Mr.  Gladstone's  in- 
stance. But  the  difficulty  which  the  Government  encoun- 
tered in  this  ecclesiastical  legislation  was  only  one  among 
many.  Their  budget  was  unpopular;  their  majority  de- 
clined ;  they  were  beaten  on  a  motion  in  favour  of  assimi- 
lating the  county  to  the  borough  franchise;  and,  after  a 
variety  of  petty  defeats,  they  resigned :  but  when  Lord 
Stanley  (who,  it  is  said,  offered  Mr.  Gladstone  the  Foreign 
Office)  and  Lord  Aberdeen  had  both  declined  the  task 
of  forming  an  administration.  Lord  John  Russell  and  his 


114  MR.  GLADSTONE 

colleagues  resumed  office.  This  reconstructed  Ministry 
very  soon  received  a  fatal  blow.  Lord  Palmerston  was 
one  of  the  most  independent  and  most  masterful  of  men. 
He  was  intensely  interested  in  foreign  affairs,  understood 
them  thoroughly,  and  had  absolute  reliance  on  his  own 
judgment.  Again  and  again,  in  spite  of  repeated  warnings 
from  Lord  John  Russell  and  an  imperative  memorandum 
from  the  Queen  herself,  he  had  taken  his  own  line  in  im- 
portant transactions,  without  even  formal  reference  to  his 
Sovereign  or  the  Prime  Minister.  His  crowning  indis- 
cretion was  committed  in  December,  185 1.  On  the  2nd 
of  the  month  Louis  Napoleon,  Prince  President  of  the 
French  Republic,  by  "a  single  act  of  lawless  violence,  abol- 
ished the  Constitution,  and  made  himself  practically  Dic- 
tator. The  details  of  that  monstrous  act,  and  of  the  blood- 
shed which  accompanied  it,  are  written  by  the  hand  of  a 
master  in  the  '  Histoire  d'un  Crime.'  The  news  created  a 
profound  sensation  in  England,  and  the  Queen  was  rightly 
and  keenly  anxious  that  no  step  should  be  taken  and  no 
word  said  which  would  convey  the  impression  that  the 
English  Government  approved  of  what  had  been  done. 

But  it  soon  leaked  out  that  Lord  Palmerston  had  ex- 
pressed to  Count  Walewski,  the  French  Ambassador  in 
London,  his  entire  approval  of  the  Prince  President's  act. 
This  was  too  much  for  the  patience  of  even  a  gracious 
Queen  and  a  long-suffering  Premier.  After  some  rather 
complicated  explanations  which  explained  nothing.  Lord 
John  Russell  dismissed  Lord  Palmerston  from  office  on 
Christmas  Eve,  185 1. 

In  the  Christmas  recess  of  185 1,  Mr.  Gladstone  found 
time  to  write  a  letter  to  Dr.  Skinner,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen 
and    Primus    (whom  he   addressed   as  'Right   Reverend 


'A   DARK    HORSE'  II5 

Father ')  on  the  position  and  functions  of  the  laity  in  the 
Church.  This  letter  is  remarkable  because,  as  was  de- 
tected at  the  time  by  Dr.  Charles  Wordsworth,  Bishop  of 
St.  Andrew's,  it '  contained  the  germ  of  Liberation,  and  the 
political  equality  of  all  religions.'  The  Bishop  published  a 
controversial  rejoinder,  which  drew  from  Dr.  Gaisford, 
Dean  of  Christ  Church,  these  emphatic  words  :  '  You  have 
proved  to  my  satisfaction  that  this  gentleman  is  unfit  to 
represent  the  University.' 

In  the  following  February,  Lord  Palmerston  enjoyed, 
in  his  own  jaunty  phrase,  his  '  tit-for-tat  with  Johnny  Rus- 
sell,' and  helped  the  Tories  to  defeat  his  late  chief  on  a 
Bill  for  reorganizing  the  militia  as  a  precaution  against 
possible  aggression  from  France. 

Lord  John  Russell  was  succeeded  by  Lord  Derby,  with 
Mr.  Disraeli  (who  now  entered  office  for  the  first  time)  as 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  Leader  of  the  House  of 
Commons  ;  with  a  string  of  nonentities  in  the  other  offices 
of  State ;  and  with  a  scarcely-disguised  intention  to  revive 
protection.  Mr.  Disraeli  introduced  and  carried  a  make- 
shift Budget,  and  the  Government  tided  over  the  Session, 
and  dissolved  Parliament  on  July  i,  1852.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's majority  at  Oxford  was  largely  increased,  but  the 
general  election  did  not  materially  disturb  the  balance  of 
parties.  There  was  now  some  talk  of  inducing  Mr.  Glad- 
stone to  join  the  Tory  Government,  and  on  November  28, 
Lord  Malmesbury  dubiously  remarks,  '  I  cannot  make  out 
Gladstone,  who  seems  to  me  a  dark  horse.'  In  the  follow- 
ing month  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  produced  his 
second  Budget.  It  was  an  ambitious  and  a  skilful  attempt 
to  reconcile  conflicting  interests,  and  to  please  all  while 
offending  none.     The  Government  had  come  into  office 


Il6  MR.  GLADSTONE 

pledged  to  do  something  for  the  reUef  of  the  agricultural 
interest.  They  redeemed  their  pledge  by  reducing  the 
duty  on  malt.  This  reduction  created  a  deficit ;  and  they 
repaired  the  deficit  by  doubling  the  duty  on  inhabited 
houses.  Unluckily,  the  agricultural  interest  proved,  as 
usual,  ungrateful  to  its  benefactors,  and  made  light  of  the 
reduction  on  malt;  while  those  who  were  to  pay  for  it  in 
double  taxation  were  naturally  indignant.  The  voices  of 
criticism,  '  angry,  loud,  discordant  voices,'  were  heard  si- 
multaneously on  every  side.  The  debate  waxed  fast  and 
furious.  In  defending  his  hapless  proposals,  Mr.  Disraeli 
gave  full  scope  to  his  most  characteristic  gifts ;  he  pelted 
his  opponents  right  and  left  with  sarcasms,  taunts,  and 
epigrams,  and  went  as  near  personal  insult  as  the  forms  of 
Parliament  permit.  He  sat  down  late  at  night,  and  Mr. 
Gladstone  rose  in  a  crowded  and  excited  House  to  deliver 
an  unpremeditated  reply  which  has  ever  since  been  cele- 
brated. Even  the  cold  and  colourless  pages  of  '  Hansard ' 
show  signs  of  the  excitement  under  which  he  laboured,  and 
of  the  tumultuous  applause  and  dissent  by  which  his  open- 
ing sentences  were  interrupted.  The  speech  of  the  Chancel- 
lor of  the  Exchequer,  he  said,  must  be  answered  *  on  the 
moment.'  It  must  be  '  tried  by  the  laws  of  decency  and 
propriety.'  He  indignantly  rebuked  his  rival's  language 
and  demeanour.  He  reminded  him  of  the  discretion  and 
decorum  due  from  every  member,  but  pre-eminently  due 
from  the  Leader  of  the  House.  He  tore  his  financial 
scheme  to  ribbons.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  duel  which 
lasted  till  death  removed  one  of  the  combatants  from  the 
political  arena.  'Those  who  had  thought  it  impossible 
that  any  impression  could  be  made  upon  the  House  after 
the  speech  of  Mr.  Disraeli  had  to  acknowledge  that  a  yet 


THE    COALITION    GOVERNMENT  II / 

greater  impression  was  produced  by  the  unprepared  reply 
of  Mr.  Gladstone.'  The  House  divided  and  the  Govern- 
ment was  left  in  a  minority  of  nineteen.  This  happened 
in  the  early  morning  of  December  17,  1852.  Within  an 
hour  of  the  division  Lord  Derby  wrote  to  the  Queen  a  let- 
ter announcing  his  defeat  and  the  consequences  which  it 
must  entail,  and  that  evening  at  Osborne  he  placed  his 
formal  resignation  in  her  Majesty's  hands. 

It  was  a  moment  of  intense  excitement.  Some  notion 
of  the  frenzy  which  prevailed  may  be  gathered  from  the 
following  circumstance.  On  December  20  'twenty  rufifians 
of  the  Carlton  Club '  as  Mr.  Greville  calls  them,  gave  a 
dinner  to  Major  Beresford,  who  had  been  charged  with 
bribery  at  the  Derby  election,  and  had  escaped  with  noth- 
ing worse  than  a  censure.  'After  dinner,'  continues  Mr. 
Greville,  '  when  they  got  drunk,  they  went  up  stairs  and, 
finding  Gladstone  alone  in  the  drawing-room,  some  of  them 
proposed  to  throw  him  out  of  the  window.  This  they  did 
not  quite  dare  do,  but  contented  themselves  with  giving 
some  insulting  message  or  order  to  the  waiter,  and  then 
went  away.'  In  spite  of  these  amenities  Mr.  Gladstone 
still  remained  a  member  of  the  club  (though  he  seldom 
used  it)  until  he  joined  the  Whig  Government  in  1859. 

The  new  Government  was  a  coalition  of  Whigs  and 
Peelites,  with  Sir  William  Molesworth  thrown  in  to  repre- 
sent the  Radicals.  Lord  Aberdeen  became  Prime  Minis- 
ter, and  Mr.  Gladstone  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  The 
other  Peelites  in  the  Cabinet  were  the  Duke  of  Newcastle, 
Sir  James  Graham,  and  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's seat  at  Oxford  was  fiercely  contested.  The  poll 
was  kept  open  for  fifteen  days.  It  may  possibly  account 
for  the  bitterness  of  the  contest  that  Lord  Derby,  whom 


Il8  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Mr.  Gladstone  had  just  helped  to  oust  from  office,  had 
been  elected  Chancellor  of  the  University,  on  the  death  of 
the  Duke  of  Wellington,  in  the  previous  autumn.  Various 
members  of  the  University  had  probably  hoped  to  suck  no 
small  advantage  out  of  the  rule  of  a  Minister  who  was 
also  chief  of  their  academical  body.  Mr.  Gladstone  fought 
the  battle  on  ecclesiastical  lines.  He  laid  great  stress  on 
Lord  Aberdeen's  friendliness  to  the  Church,  and  vehe- 
mently protested  his  own  continued  loyalty  to  those  prin- 
ciples of  Churchmanship  of  which  he  had  been  for  twenty 
years  a  distinguished  exponent.  But  the  more  fiery  spirits 
of  the  High  Church  party,  headed  by  Archdeacon  Denison, 
mistrusted  and  opposed  him,  mainly  on  account  of  his  atti- 
tude towards  religious  education,  and  they  succeeded  in 
materially  reducing  his  majority.  He  was,  however,  re- 
turned again,  and  entered  on  the  active  duties  of  a  great 
office  for  which  he  was  pre-eminently  and  uniquely  fitted 
by  an  unequalled  combination  of  financial,  administrative, 
and  rhetorical  gifts.  If  one  can  conceive  of  a  heaven-born 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  Mr.  Gladstone  was  that  ce- 
lestial product. 

His  first  Budget,  which  was  awaited  with  intense  inter- 
est, was  introduced  on  April  i8,  1853.  It  tended  to  make 
life  easier  and  cheaper  for  large  and  numerous  classes ;  it 
promised  wholesale  remissions  of  taxation ;  it  lessened  the 
charges  on  common  processes  of  business,  on  locomotion, 
on  postal  communication,  and  on  several  articles  of  gen- 
eral consumption.  The  deficiency  thus  created  was  to  be 
met  by  the  application  of  the  legacy  duty  to  real  property, 
by  an  increase  of  the  duty  on  spirits,  and  by  the  extension 
of  the  income-tax,  at  ^d.  in  the  pound,  to  all  incomes  be- 
tween 100/.  and  150/. 


CHANCELLOR    OF   THE    EXCHEQUER  II9 

The  speech,  five  hours  long,  in  which  these  proposals 
were  introduced,  held  the  House  spell-bound.  Here  was 
an  orator  who  could  apply  all  the  resources  of  a  burnished 
rhetoric  to  the  elucidation  of  figures ;  who  could  make 
pippins  and  cheese  interesting,  and  tea  serious  ;  who  could 
sweep  the  widest  horizon  of  the  financial  future,  and  yet 
stoop  to  bestow  the  minutest  attention  on  the  microcosm 
of  penny  stamps  and  post-horses.  Above  all,  the  Chan- 
cellor's mode  of  handling  the  income-tax  attracted  interest 
and  admiration.  It  was  no  nicely-calculated  less  or  more, 
no  tinkering  or  top-dressing,  no  mere  experimenting  with 
results,  but  a  searching  analysis  of  the  financial  and  moral 
grounds  on  which  the  impost  rested,  and  an  historical 
justification  and  eulogy  of  it  couched  in  language  worthy 
of  a  more  majestic  theme.  '  It  was  in  the  crisis  of  the  revo- 
lutionary war  that,  when  Mr.  Pitt  found  the  resources  of 
taxation  were  failing  under  him,  his  mind  fell  back  upon 
the  conception  of  the  income-tax ;  and,  when  he  proposed 
it  to  Parliament,  that  great  man,  possessed  with  his  great 
idea,  raised  his  eloquence  to  an  unusual  height  and  power.' 
Yet,  great  as  had  been  the  services  of  the  income-tax  at  a 
time  of  national  danger,  and  great  as  they  would  prove 
again  should  such  a  crisis  recur,  Mr.  Gladstone  could  not 
consent  to  retain  it  as  a  part  of  the  permanent  and  ordi- 
nary finances  of  the  country.  It  was  objectionable  on  ac- 
count of  its  unequal  incidence,  of  the  harassing  investiga- 
tion into  private  affairs  which  it  entailed,  and  of  the  frauds 
to  which  it  inevitably  led.  Therefore,  having  served  its 
turn,  it  was  to  be  extinguished  in  i860. 

Depend  upon  it,  when  you  come  to  close  quarters  with  this 
subject,  when  you  come  to  measure  and  see  the  respective 
relations  of  intelligence  and  labour  and  property,  and  when 


120  MR.  GLADSTONE 

you  come  to  represent  these  relations  in  arithmetical  results, 
you  are  undertaking  an  operation  which  I  should  say  it  was 
beyond  the  power  of  man  to  conduct  with  satisfaction,  but 
which,  at  any  rate,  is  an  operation  to  which  you  ought  not 
constantly  to  recur ;  for  if,  as  my  hon.  friend  once  said  very 
properly,  this  country  could  not  bear  a  revolution  once  a  year, 
I  will  venture  to  say  that  it  could  not  bear  a  reconstruction 
of  the  income-tax  once  a  year.  Whatever  you  do  in  regard 
to  the  income-tax  you  must  be  bold,  you  must  be  intelligible, 
you  must  be  decisive.  You  must  not  palter  with  it.  If  you 
do,  I  have  striven  at  least  to  point  out  as  well  as  my  feeble 
powers  will  permit,  the  almost  desecration  I  would  say,  cer- 
tainly the  gross  breach  of  duty  to  your  country,  of  which  you 
will  be  found  guilty,  in  thus  jeopardizing  one  of  the  most 
valuable  among  all  its  material  resources.  I  believe  it  to  be 
of  vital  importance,  whether  you  keep  this  tax  or  whether  you 
part  with  it,  that  you  should  either  keep  it  or  leave  it  in  a 
state  in  which  it  would  be  fit  for  service  in  an  emergency,  and 
that  it  will  be  impossible  to  do  if  you  break  up  the  basis  of 
your  income-tax. 

If  the  Committee  have  followed  me,  they  will  understand 
that  we  stand  on  the  principle  that  the  income-tax  ought  to  be 
marked  as  a  temporary  measure  ;  that  the  public  feeling  that 
relief  should  be  given  to  intelligence  and  skill  as  compared  with 
property  ought  to  be  met, and  maybe  met;  that  the  income-tax 
in  its  operation  ought  to  be  mitigated  by  every  rational  means, 
compatible  with  its  mtegrity  ;  and,  above  all,  that  it  should  be 
associated  in  the  last  term  of  its  existence,  as  it  was  in  the 
first,  with  those  remissions  of  indirect  taxation  which  have  so 
greatly  redounded  to  the  profit  of  this  country,  and  have  set 
so  admirable  an  example  —  an  example  that  has  already  in 
some  quarters  proved  contagious  to  other  nations  of  the  earth. 
These  are  the  principles  on  which  we  stand,  and  the  figures. 
I  have  shown  you  that  if  you  grant  us  the  taxes  which  we  ask, 
the  moderate  amount  of  2,500,000/.  in  the  whole,  and  much 
less  than  that  sum  for  the  present  year,  you,  or  the  Parliament 
which  may  be  in  existence  in  i860,  will  be  in  the  condition,  if 


FIRST   BUDGET  121 

you  so  think  fit,  to  part  with  the  income-tax.  I  am  almost 
afraid  to  look  at  the  clock,  shamefully  reminding  me,  as  it 
must,  how  long  I  have  trespassed  on  the  time  of  the  House. 
All  I  can  say  in  apology  is  that  I  have  endeavoured  to  keep 
closely  to  the  topics  which  I  had  before  me — 

— immensum  spatiis  confecimus  ?equor, 
Et  jam  tempus  equum  fumantia  solvere  coUa. 

These  are  the  proposals  of  the  Government.  They  may  be 
approved  or  they  may  be  condemned,  but  I  have  this  full  con- 
fidence, that  it  will  be  admitted  that  we  have  not  sought  to 
evade  the  difficulties  of  the  position ;  that  we  have  not  con- 
cealed those  difficulties  either  from  ourselves  or  from  others  ; 
that  we  have  not  attempted  to  counteract  them  by  narrow  or 
flimsy  expedients  ;  that  we  have  prepared  plans  which,  if  you 
will  adopt  them,  will  go  some  way  to  close  up  many  vexed 
financial  questions  which,  if  not  now  settled,  may  be  attended 
with  public  inconvenience,  and  even  with  public  danger,  in 
future  years  and  under  less  favourable  circumstances  ;  that  we 
have  endeavoured,  in  the  plans  we  have  now  submitted  to  you, 
to  make  the  path  of  our  successors  in  future  years  not  more 
arduous  but  more  easy :  and  I  may  be  permitted  to  add  that, 
while  we  have  sought  to  do  justice  to  the  great  labour  com- 
munity of  England  by  furthering  their  relief  from  indirect 
taxation,  we  have  not  been  guided  by  any  desire  to  put  one 
class  against  another.  We  have  felt  we  should  best  maintain 
our  own  honour,  that  we  should  best  meet  the  views  of  Par- 
liament, and  best  promote  the  interests  of  the  country,  by 
declining  to  draw  any  invidious  distinction  between  class  and 
class,  by  adopting  it  to  ourselves  as  a  sacred  aim  to  diffuse 
and  distribute  the  burdens  with  equal  and  impartial  hand ; 
and  we  have  the  consolation  of  believing  that  by  proposals 
such  as  these  we  contribute,  as  far  as  in  us  lies,  not  only  to 
develope  the  material  resources  of  the  country,  but  to  knit  the 
various  parts  of  this  great  nation  yet  more  closely  than  ever 
to  that  Throne  and  to  those  institutions  under  which  it  is  our 
happiness  to  live. 


122  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Here  indeed  was  an  orator  who  could  reconcile  the 
spiritual  and  material  interests  of  the  age,  and  give  a  moral 
significance  to  dry  details  of  finance  and  commerce.  The 
scheme  thus  introduced  astonished,  interested,  and  attracted 
the  country.  The  Queen  and  Prince  Albert  wrote  to  con- 
gratulate the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  Public  author- 
ities and  private  friends  joined  in  the  chorus  of  eulogy. 
The  Budget  demonstrated  at  once  its  author's  absolute 
mastery  over  figures,  the  persuasive  force  of  his  expository 
gift,  his  strange  power  of  clothing  the  dry  bones  of  customs 
and  tariffs  with  the  flesh  and  blood  of  human  interest,  and 
even  something  of  the  warm  glow  of  poetic  color.  It  es- 
tablished the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  as  the  para- 
mount financier  of  his  day,  and  it  was  only  the  first  of  a 
long  series  of  similar  performances,  different,  of  course,  in 
detail,  but  alike  in  their  bold  outlines  and  brilliant  hand- 
ling. Probably  Mr.  Gladstone's  financial  statements,  taken 
as  a  whole,  constitute  the  most  remarkable  testimony  to  his. 
purely  intellectual  qualities  which  will  be  available  for  the 
guidance  of  posterity  when  it  comes  to  assign  his  perma- 
nent place  in  the  ranks  of  human  greatness. 

Looking  back  on  a  long  life  of  strenuous  exertion,  Mr. 
Gladstone  declares  that  the  work  of  preparing  his  propo- 
sals about  the  Succession  Duty  and  carrying  them  through 
Parliament  was  by  far  the  most  laborious  task  which  he 
ever  performed. 

Writing  on  May  22,  1853,  Mr.  Greville  records  an  inter- 
view with  Sir  James  Graham,  and  a  curious  conversation  : 

Graham  seemed  in  excellent  spirits  about  their  political 
state  and  prospects,  all  owing  to  Gladstone  and  the  complete 
success  of  his  Budget.  The  long  and  numerous  Cabinets, 
which  were  attributed  by  the  '  Times  '  to  disunion,  were  oc- 


'CABINET   SHAKY'  1 23 

cupied  in  minute  consideration  of  the  Budget,  which  was  there 
fully  discussed  ;  and  Gladstone  spoke  in  the  Cabinet  one  day 
for  three  hours  rehearsing  his  speech  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, though  not  quite  at  such  length.  .  .  .  He  talked  of  a 
future  head,  as  Aberdeen  is  always  ready  to  retire  at  any  mo- 
ment; but  it  is  very  difficult  to  find  anyone  to  succeed  him. 
I  suggested  Gladstone.  He  shook  his  head  and  said  it  would 
not  do.  .  .  .  He  spoke  of  the  grand  mistakes  Derby  had  made. 
Gladstone's  object  certainly  was  for  a  long  time  to  be  at  the 
head  of  the  Conservative  party  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  to  join  with  Derby,  who  might,  in  fact,  have  had  all  the 
Peelites  if  he  would  have  chosen  to  ally  himself  with  them, 
instead  of  with  Disraeli ;  thus  the  latter  had  been  the  cause 
of  the  ruin  of  the  party.  Graham  thought  that  Derby  had 
committed  himself  to  Disraeli  in  George  Bentinck's  lifetime 
in  some  way  which  prevented  his  shaking  him  off,  as  it  would 
have  been  his  interest  to  do.  The  Peelites  would  have  united 
with  Derby,  but  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  Disraeli. 

On  November  3,  1853,  Bishop  Wilberforce,  after  a  con- 
versation with  Mr.  (now  Sir)  Arthur  Gordon,  writes :  '  Lord 
Aberdeen  now  growing  to  look  upon  Gladstone  as  his  suc- 
cessor, and  so  told  Gladstone  the  other  day.  Cabinet 
shaky.' 

That  the  Budget  of  1853  did  not  in  the  result  secure  for 
the  public  all  the  boons  which  it  promised,  was  due  to  cir- 
cumstances which,  if  not  wholly  unforeseen,  were  not  gener- 
ally foreseen  in  all  the  awful  possibilities  of  evil  which  they 
opened  to  the  gaze  of  a  prescient  few.  Mr.  Gladstone's 
first  Budget  was  prepared  and  presented  on  the  eve  of  the 
Crimean  War,  and  carried  into  effect  amid  all  the  horrors 
of  that  grim  campaign. 


124  MR.  GLADSTONE 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  Crimean  War — Resignation — Ecclesiastical  troubles — A  free  lance 
— The  '  Arrow  ' — The  Divorce  Bill — Opposition  to  Lord  Palmer- 
ston — Declines  to  join  Tory  Government — Lord  High  Commissioner 
to  the  Ionian  Islands  —  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  in  Whig 
Government — The  French  Treaty  and  the  Paper  Duties — Conflict 
with  the  House  of  Lords — Opinion  on  the  American  War. 

Mr.  Bright  was  once  walking  with  one  of  his  sons — then 
a  schoolboy  —  past  the  Guards'  monument  in  Waterloo 
Place.  The  boy  caught  sight  of  the  solitary  word  '  Crimea  ' 
inscribed  on  the  base,  and  asked  his  father  what  it  meant. 
Mr.  Bright's  answer  was  as  emphatic  as  the  inscription — 
'A  Crime.'  It  was  indeed  a  crime,  a  grave,  a  disastrous, 
and  a  wanton  crime,  that  committed  Christian  England  to 
a  war  in  defence  of  the  great  anti- Christian  Power.  By 
what  processes  Mr.  Gladstone  became  and  remained  in- 
volved in  such  accountability  is  a  subject  of  interesting 
but  painful  and  perhaps  profitless  enquiry. 

The  history  of  the  war  may  be  briefly  told.  For  nearly 
forty  years  Europe  had  enjoyed  the  sunshine  of  unbroken 
peace.  Towards  the  end  of  1852  a  little  cloud,  no  bigger 
than  a  man's  hand,  was  seen  to  hover  over  the  Holy  Places 
of  Jerusalem.  The  Greek  and  Roman  Churches  contended 
for  the  custody  of  those  sacred  spots  which  are  associated 


THE   CRIMEA  125 

with  the  most  august  events  of  Christian  history,  and  are 
therefore  in  some  sense  the  common  heritage  of  the  whole 
Christian  family.  The  claims  of  the  rival  Churches  were 
supported  respectively  by  Russia  and  France,  and  to  this 
cause  of  dispute  was  soon  added  a  formal  claim  on  the  part 
of  the  Czar  to  a  Protectorate  over  all  the  Greek  subjects  of 
the  Porte.  On  July  2  and  3,  1853,  the  Russians  crossed 
the  Pruth,  and  occupied  the  Danubian  principalities,  wliich 
by  the  Treaty  of  Balta  Liman  (1849)  were  to  be  evacuated 
by  the  forces  both  of  the  Czar  and  the  Sultan,  and  not  to  be 
entered  by  either  except  for  the  repression  of  internal  dis- 
turbance. In  this  conjuncture  England  might  have  taken 
one  or  other  of  two  courses,  either  of  which,  if  plainly  an- 
nounced and  persistently  followed,  would  probably  have 
averted  war.  The  alternatives  were  to  inform  Turkey  that 
England  would  render  her  no  assistance,  or  to  warn  Russia 
that,  if  she  went  to  war,  England  would  fight  for  Turkey. 
But  here  the  inherent  weakness  of  the  coalition,  founded 
on  an  attempted  amalgamation  of  really  immiscible  ele- 
ments, produced  a  fatal  indecision.  Lord  Aberdeen  wished 
England  to  stand  aloof ;  Lord  Palmerston  and  Lord  John 
Russell  wished  her  to  support  Turkey ;  and,  generally  speak- 
ing, the  Peelite  members  of  the  Government  were  a  shade 
more  pacific  than  the  Whigs.  Thus  halting  between  two 
opinions,  the  country  '  drifted  into  war '  with  Russia,  and 
the  fatal  step  was  formally  announced  to  Parliament  on 
March  27,  1854.  It  thus  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  most  pacific 
of  Ministers,  the  devotee  of  retrenchment,  and  the  anxious 
cultivator  of  all  industrial  arts,  to  prepare  a  War  Budget, 
and  to  meet  as  well  as  he  might  the  exigencies  of  a  conflict 
which  had  so  cruelly  dislocated  all  the  ingenious  devices  of 
financial  optimism. 


126  MR.   GLADSTONE 

No  amount  of  skill  in  the  manipulation  of  figures,  no 
ingenuity  in  shifting  fiscal  burdens,  could  prevent  the  addi- 
tion of  forty-one  millions  to  the  national  debt,  or  could 
countervail  the  appalling  mismanagement  which  was  ram- 
pant at  the  seat  of  war.  The  paralysis  which  springs  from 
divided  counsels  seemed  to  have  affected  the  whole  of  our 
military  administration.  To  the  inseparable  evils  of  war 
— bloodshed  and  sickness — were  added  the  horrors  of  a 
peculiarly  cruel  winter,  and  a  vast  amount  of  unnecessary 
privation  and  hardship,  due  to  divided  responsibility  and 
to  an  inconceivable  clumsiness  of  organization.  England 
lost  some  twenty-four  thousand  men,  of  whom  five-sixths 
died  from  preventable  disease,  and  the  want  of  proper 
food,  clothing,  and  shelter.  Well  might  Mr.  Gladstone 
declare  that  the  state  of  the  army  in  the  Crimea  was  '  a 
matter  for  weeping  all  day  and  praying  all  night.'  But  the 
critics  of  the  Government  were  not  disposed  to  content 
themselves  with  tears  and  prayers.  Their  sentiments  took 
the  more  homely  and  more  inconvenient  form  of  what  was 
practically  a  vote  of  censure.  As  soon  as  Parliament  met 
in  January,  1855,  Mr.  Roebuck,  the  Radical  member  for 
Sheffield,  gave  notice  that  he  would  move  for  a  Select 
Committee  '  to  enquire  into  the  condition  of  our  army  be- 
fore Sebastopol,  and  into  the  conduct  of  those  departments 
of  the  Government  whose  duty  it  has  been  to  minister  to 
the  wants  of  that  army.'  On  the  same  day  Lord  John 
Russell,  without  announcing  his  intention  to  his  colleagues, 
resigned  his  office  as  Lord  President  of  the  Council,  sooner 
than  attempt  the  defence  of  the  Government.  It  is  only 
fair  to  Lord  John  to  say  that  he  had  long  been  unsuccess- 
fully urging  upon  his  colleagues  the  need  of  greater  activity 
and  better  organization,  and  that  he  honestly  felt  that  the 


'ENGLAND  DOES  NOT  LOVE  COALITIONS'   12/ 

conduct  which  he  would  be  called  upon  to  defend  was  in- 
defensible. But  this  fact  did  not  make  his  sudden  resig- 
nation, in  face  of  a  hostile  motion,  less  embarrassing  to  his 
colleagues;  and  Mr.  Gladstone,  in  defending  the  Govern- 
ment against  Mr.  Roebuck,  rebuked  in  dignified  and  signif- 
icant terms  the  conduct  of  men  who,  '  hoping  to  escape 
from  punishment,  ran  away  from  duty.'  But  the  case 
against  Ministers  was  so  overwhelmingly  strong  that  all 
the  resources  of  dialectical  ingenuity  were  powerless  to 
withstand  it ;  and,  on  the  division  on  Mr.  Roebuck's  mo- 
tion, the  Government  was  beaten  by  the  unexpected  ma- 
jority of  157. 

Thus  perished  Lord  Aberdeen's  Ministry,  amid  circum- 
stances that  justified  the  remarkable  warning  with  which 
Mr.  Disraeli  had  greeted  its  birth — '  England  does  not  love 
coalitions.' 

Lord  Derby  essayed  to  form  a  Ministry,  but  the  Peel- 
ites  would  not  join  him,  nor  would  their  adhesion  have 
been  welcome  to  his  own  followers.  Lord  John  Russell, 
though  the  Queen  applied  to  him,  was  obviously  impossi- 
ble ;  and  Lord  Palmerston  became  Prime  Minister.  The 
Peelites  joined  him,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  resumed  office  as 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  A  shrewd  observer  at  the 
time  pronounced  him  '  indispensable.  Any  other  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  would  be  torn  in  bits  by  him.' 
This  was  the  first  time  that  he  had  served  under  a  Whig 
chief.  It  was  a  marked  step  in  the  road  towards  Liberal- 
ism. The  Government  was  formed  on  the  understanding 
that  Mr.  Roebuck's  proposed  committee  was  to  be  resist- 
ed. Lord  Palmerston  soon  saw  that  further  resistance 
was  useless.  His  Peelite  colleagues  stuck  to  their  text, 
and,  within  three  weeks  after  resuming  office,  Mr.  Glad- 


128  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Stone,  Sir  James  Graham,  and  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert  resign- 
ed. From  this  time  forward,  Mr.  Gladstone  had  of  course 
no  direct  or  official  responsibility  for  the  war,  though  he 
defended  the  policy  which  had  dictated  it,  and  the  general 
lines  on  which  it  had  been  pursued,  in  more  than  one  im- 
pressive and  well-argued  speech.  More  than  twenty  years 
after  the  conclusion  of  peace,  he  vindicated  his  share  in 
the  unhappy  business,  in  a  careful  and  elaborate  essay,  in 
which,  without  professing  an  absolute  confidence  in  the 
wisdom  of  his  action,  he  sought  to  prove  that,  in  its  incep- 
tion, the  Crimean  War  was  wise  and  good,  and  was  ren- 
dered necessary  by  the  actual  state  of  Europe.  'The 
design  of  the  Crimean  War  was,  in  its  groundwork,  the 
vindication  of  European  law  against  an  unprovoked  ag- 
gression. It  sought,  therefore,  to  maintain  intact  the  con- 
dition of  the  menaced  party  against  the  aggressor ;  or,  in 
other  words,  to  defend  against  Russia  the  integrity  and 
independence  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.'  From  the  doc- 
trine of  public  duty  thus  suggested,  Englishmen  who  are 
jealous  of  the  Christian  honour  of  their  country,  and  who 
revere  Mr.  Gladstone  as  the  foremost  champion  of  that 
honour  in  domestic  and  foreign  relations,  may  appeal  to 
the  authority  of  one  whom  even  he  calls  master. 

I  have  never  before  heard  it  held  forth  (said  Mr.  Burke) 
that  the  Turkish  Empire  has  ever  been  considered  as  any  part 
of  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe.  They  despise  and  con- 
temn all  Christian  princes  as  infidels,  and  only  wish  to  subdue 
and  exterminate  them  and  their  people!  What  have  these 
worse  than  savages  to  do  with  the  Powers  of  Europe,  but  to 
spread  war,  destruction,  and  pestilence  amongst  them  }  The 
Ministers  and  the  policy  which  shall  give  these  people  any 
weight  in  Europe  will  deserve  all  the  bans  and  curses  of  pos- 
terity. 


J 


ISOLATION   AND    UNCERTAINTY  1 29 

When,  in  February,  1855,  ^^'"-  Gladstone  resigned,  or, 
as  he  now  tells  us  was  the  case,  was  '  driven '  from  office, 
his  position  was  one  of  peculiar  isolation,  and  his  political 
prospects  were  involved  in  profound  uncertainty.  The 
degree  and  nature  of  this  uncertainty  are  well  illustrated 
by  the  record,  lately  given  to  the  world,  of  a  conversation 
which  took  place  at  the  time  between  two  experienced 
lookers-on,  Mr.  Nassau  Senior  and  Sir  Frederic  Elliot.  It 
is  worth  recalling,  if  only  to  show  the  innate  and  incurable 
fallibility  of  the  political  prophet : 

'As  to  the  secession,'  Elliot  said,  'of  Herbert  and  Glad- 
stone, it  is  a  great  blow  to  the  future  Government  and  a  pro- 
digious accession  to  the  Tories.' 

'  Will  Gladstone,'  I  said,  '  oust  Disraeli  ?  Will  he  be  able, 
as  soon  as  he  crosses  the  floor  of  the  House,  to  assume  the 
command  of  his  old  enemies  ?' 

'  Not  immediately,'  said  Elliot.  '  He  will  at  first  take  a 
neutral  position.  He  will  protect  the  Government,  but  from 
time  to  time  candidly  admit  its  shortcomings,  and  gradually, 
from  damaging  them  by  his  support,  will  slide  into  damaging 
them  by  his  attacks,  until  Dizzy  is  deposed  and  Herbert,  and 
Gladstone,  and  Cardwell  become  the  leaders  of  the  Opposition 
without  anybody's  knowing  how  it  was  done.' 

'  Dizzy,'  I  said,  'will  scarcely  submit  to  be  so  blandly  ab- 
sorbed. If  the  Tories  throw  him  off  he  will  return  to  his  early 
love,  the  Radicals.' 

'  He  may  try  it,'  said  Elliot,  '  but  he  will  fail.  They  will  not 
accept  him.  He  is  purely  a  rhetorician,  and  a  rhetorican 
powerful  only  in  attack.  He  wants  knowledge,  he  wants  the 
habits  of  patient  investigation  by  which  it  is  to  be  acquired, 
he  wants  sincerity,  he  wants  public  spirit,  he  wants  tact,  he 
wants  birth,  he  wants  fortune  :  he  wants,  in  short,  nine  out  of 
ten  of  the  qualities  that  fit  a  man  to  lead  a  party.  Nothing 
but  the  penury  of  talent  among  the  Tories  after  the  secession 

9 


130  MR.  GLADSTONE 

of  the  Peelites  gave  him  importance.     If  the  Peelites  rejoin 
their  old  associates,  he  is  lost.' ' 

But,  happily  for  Mr,  Disraeli,  the  Peelites  did  not  '  join 
their  old  associates.'  Released  from  office,  Mr.  Gladstone 
assumed  the  position  of  an  influential  private  member, 
belonging  to  neither  party,  but  related  in  some  degree  to 
both ;  and,  while  not  immediately  available  for  construc- 
tion and  defence,  more  than  ever  dreaded  in  criticism  and 
attack.  'His  sympathies,'  he  himself  said,  were  'with 
Conservatives,  his  opinions  with  Liberals ' :  a  dangerous 
dichotomy  for  both  parties  involved. 

In  the  August  of  this  year  Lord  Aberdeen  said  : 

Gladstone  intends  to  be  Prime  Minister.  He  has  great 
qualifications,  but  some  serious  defects :  the  chief,  that  when 
he  has  convinced  himself,  perhaps  by  abstract  reasoning,  of 
some  view,  he  thinks  everyone  else  ought  at  once  to  see  it  as 
he  does,  and  can  make  no  allowance  for  difference  of  opinion. 
Gladstone  must  thoroughly  recover  his  popularity.  This  un- 
popularity is  merely  temporary.  He  is  supreme  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  The  Queen  has  quite  got  over  her  feeling 
against  him,  and  likes  him  much.  ...  I  have  told  Gladstone 
that  when  he  is  Prime  Minister,  I  will  have  a  seat  in  his  Cabi- 
net if  he  desires  it,  without  an  office. 

Two  interesting  conversations  with  Sir  James  Graham 
may  here  be  noticed.  On  April  3,  1856,  Mr.  Greville 
writes : 

Yesterday,  I  met  Graham.  .  .  .  He  began  talking  over  the 
state  of  affairs  generally.  .  .  .  He  says  there  is  not  one  man  in 
the  House  of  Commons  who  has  ten  followers — neither  Glad- 
stone, nor   Disraeli,  nor   Palmerston.  .  .  .  that  Gladstone  is 

'  '  Behind  the  Scenes  in  English  Politics,'  by  the  late  Nassau  W. 
Senior  {Nineteenth  Century,  September  1890). 


STRANGE  OVERTURES  13I 

certainly  the  ablest  man  there.  ...  His  religious  opinions,  in 
which  he  is  zealous  and  sincere,  enter  so  largely  into  his  polit- 
ical conduct  as  to  form  a  very  serious  obstacle  to  his  success, 
for  they  are  abhorrent  to  the  majority  of  this  Protestant 
country,  and  (I  was  rather  surprised  to  hear  him  say)  Graham 
thinks  approach  very  nearly  to  Rome.  Gladstone  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  any  Government  unless  he  were  leader  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  .  .  .  Disraeli  appears  to  be  endeav- 
ouring to  approach  Gladstone,  and  a  cofi/ederacy  between  tJiose 
two  and  young  Stanley  (now  Lord  Derby)  is  by  no  means  aJi 
itnprobability. 

In  connexion  with  Sir  James  Graham's  remarks  on 
Mr.  Gladstone's  religious  opinions,  the  following  letter 
may  be  read  with  interest.  Archdeacon  Denison  had 
been  prosecuted  for  teaching  the  doctrine  of  the  Real 
Presence  in  the  Holy  Eucharist,  and  was  condemned  by 
Dr.  Lushington,  acting  as  assessor  to  Archbishop  Sumner. 
With  reference  to  this  judgment  Mr.  Gladstone  writes  on 
August  18,  1856  : 

Whatever  comes  of  it,  two  things  are  pretty  plain  :  the  first, 
that  not  only  with  executive  authorities,  but  in  the  sacred 
halls  of  justice,  there  are  now  two  measures  and  not  one  in 
use — the  straight  one  for  those  supposed  to  err  in  believing 
overmuch,  and  the  other  for  those  who  believe  too  little.  The 
second,  that  this  is  another  blow  to  the  dogmatic  principle  in 
the  Established  Church  :  the  principle  on  which,  as  a  Church, 
it  rests,  and  on  which,  as  an  establishment,  it  seems  less  and 
less  permitted  to  rest.  No  hasty  judgment  is  pardonable  in 
these  matters,  but  for  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years  undoubtedly 
the  skies  have  been  darkening  for  a  storm. 

On  the  23rd  of  August  he  writes  : 

The  stewards  of  doctrine  should,  on  the  general  ground  of 
controversy  and  disturbance,  deliver  from  their  pulpits  or  as 
they  think  fit,  to  the  people  the  true  and  substantive  doctrine 


132  MR.    GLADSTONE 

of  the  Holy  Eucharist.  This  freely  done,  and  without  any 
notice  of  the  Archbishop  or  Dr.  Lushington,  I  should  think 
far  better  for  the  time  than  any  declaration.  .  .  . 

It  is  high  time  that  there  should  be  a  careful  argument 
upon  the  justice  and  morality  of  late  ecclesiastical  proceed- 
ings ;  that  the  Archbishop  should  be  awakened  out  of  his  fool's 
paradise,  and  made  to  understand  that,  though  reverence  for 
his  office  has  up  to  this  time,  in  a  wonderful  manner,  kept 
people  silent  about  his  proceedings,  yet  the  time  has  come 
when  a  beginning  must  be  made  towards  describing  them 
without  circumlocution  in  their  true  colours  ;  and  it  must  like- 
wise be  shown  how  judicial  proceedings  are  governed  by  extra- 
judicial considerations,  and  a  system  is  growing  up  under 
which  ecclesiastical  judges  are  becoming  the  virtual  legisla- 
tors of  the  Church,  while  its  legislature  is  silent. 

On  September  27,  1856,  Bishop  Wilberforce,  writing  at 
Netherby,  notes  Sir  James  Graham's  views  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone thus : 

In  the  highest  sense  of  the  word  Liberal;  of  the  greatest 
power,  very  much  the  first  man  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
Detested  by  the  aristocracy  for  his  succession-duty — the  most 
truly  Conservative  measure  passed  in  my  recollection.  Just 
reading  De  Tocqueville,  and  when  I  read  his  statement  that 
unequal  taxation  was  the  most  effective  of  all  the  causes  of 
the  Revolution,  I  thought  at  once  of  Gladstone  and  his  suc- 
cession-duty. He  must  rise  to  the  lead  in  such  a  Government 
as  ours,  even  in  spite  of  all  that  hatred  to  him.  .  .  .  Gladstone 
must  rise  ;  he  is  young,  he  is  by  far  the  ablest  man  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  and,  in  it,  in  the  long  run,  the  ablest  man  must 
lead. 

Mr.  Gladstone  has  said  of  himself  and  of  his  Peelite 
colleagues,  during  this  period  of  political  isolation,  that 
they  were  like  roving  icebergs,  on  which  men  could  not 
land  with  safety,  but  with  which  ships  might  come  into 
perilous   collision.     Their  weight  was  too   great   not   to 


A   FREE   LANCE  1 33 

count,  but  it  counted  first  this  way  and  then  that.  '  It  is 
not  alleged  against  them  that  their  conduct  was  dishon- 
ourable, but  their  public  action  was  attended  with  much 
public  inconvenience.'  In  the  autumn  of  1856  he  is  re- 
ported to  have  said  to  an  intimate  friend  :  '  It  would  be  a 
great  gain  if  I  and  Sidney  Herbert  and  Graham  could  be 
taken  out  of  tne  House,  and  let  them  shake  up  the  bag 
and  make  new  combinations.  If  Lord  Derby  and  Lord 
Aberdeen  understood  one  another,  all  would  be  easy. 
Palmerston  has  never  been  a  successful  Minister — great 
love  of  power,  and  even  stronger  a  principle  of  false 
shame,  cares  not  how  much  dirt  he  eats,  but  it  must  be 
gilded  dirt.  Palmerston  is  strong  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, but  he  does  not  understand  the  House  of  Com- 
mons.' The  friend  to  whom  these  disclosures  were  made 
adds  this  comment :  '  Manifestly  Gladstone  leans  to  a 
Conservative  alliance.  The  Conservative  is  the  best 
chance  for  the  Church.'  And  a  few  months  later  Lord 
Malmesbury  writes  :  '  Gladstone  and  Sidney  Herbert  ap- 
pear anxious  to  join  Lord  Derby.' 

But  in  whatever  direction  his  leanings  lay,  it  is  evident 
that  he  was  very  little  disposed  to  be  friendly  to  the  Whig 
Government.  He  was  a  peculiarly  acute  thorn  in  the  side 
of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  criticized  the 
Budgets  with  unsparing  vigour.  '  Gladstone  seems  bent 
on  leading  Sir  George  Lewis  a  weary  life,'  wrote  Mr.  Grev- 
ille.  But  finance  was  by  no  means  the  only  subject  which 
excited  the  pugnacious  ardour  of  this  terrible  free  lance. 
Armed  cap-a-pie  with  his  panoply  of  knowledge,  dialectic, 
and  eloquence,  he  ranged  over  the  wide  plains  of  foreign 
and  domestic  policy,  now  threatening  the  most  impassion- 
ed resistance  to  the  imposition  of  heavier  duties  on  the 


134 


MR.  GLADSTONE 


working  man's  tea  and  sugar,  now  championing  the  cause 
of  reUgious  and  voluntary  education  against  Lord  John 
Russell's  very  moderate  endeavours  after  a  national  sys- 
tem ;  one  day  denouncing  the  secret  enlistment  of  Ameri- 
can soldiers  under  the  English  flag,  and  another  repudiat- 
ing the  high-handed  behaviour  of  the  English  authorities 
towards  the  Chinese  in  the  matter  of  the  lorcha  Arrozv. 

The  debate  on  the  last-named  subjects  proved  fatal  to 
the  Government. 

Mr.  Greville  writes  on  March  4  :  '  A  majority  of  sixteen 
against  Government,  more  than  any  of  them  expected.  A 
magnificent  speech  of  Gladstone.  Palmerston's  speech  is 
said  to  have  been  very  dull  in  the  first  part,  and  very  bow- 
wow in  the  second.'  In  consequence  of  the  ministerial  de- 
feat, Parliament  was  dissolved  on  March  21,  1857.  The 
General  Election  resulted  in  a  majority  for  Lord  Palmer- 
ston.  Mr.  Gladstone  was  returned  unopposed  for  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford.  On  June  3  Mr.  Greville  writes  :  '  Glad- 
stone hardly  ever  goes  near  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
never  opens  his  lips.'  But  this  silence  was  not  destined 
to  last  long.  In  the  later  part  of  the  session  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's great  powers  and  peculiar  knowledge  found  abun- 
dant and  congenial  employment  in  strenuous  opposition 
to  the  infamous  Divorce  Bill  which  had  come  down  from 
the  House  of  Lords.  He  spoke  more  than  seventy  times 
on  the  various  stages  of  the  Bill,  endeavouring  first  to  de- 
feat it  on  the  clear  issue  of  principle,  then  to  postpone  it 
for  more  mature  consideration,  and,  when  beaten  in  these 
attempts,  to  purge  it  of  its  most  glaringly  offensive  feat- 
ures. The  debates  were  marked  by  some  passages  of  arms 
between  him  and  the  Attorney-General,  Sir  Richard  Bethell 
(afterwards  Lord  Chancellor  Westbury),  which  were  highly 


THE  DIVORCE  COURT  1 35 

characteristic  of  the  two  men.  The  main  ground  of  Mr, 
Gladstone's  opposition  to  the  Bill  was  the  highest.  Mar- 
riage was  not  onl}'^  or  chiefly  a  civil  contract,  but  a  '  mys- 
tery '  of  the  Christian  religion.  By  the  law  of  God  it  could 
not  be  so  annulled  as  to  permit  of  the  re-marriage  of  the 
parties.  Not  content  with  his  energetic  and  multiform  re- 
sistance to  the  Bill  in  Parliament,  he  fought  it  in  the  Press. 
He  contributed  to  the  July  number  of  the  'Quarterly  Re- 
view '  an  elaborate  essay,  which  was  freely  quoted  in  the 
debate,  and  in  which  he  argued  the  case  against  divorce 
with  immense  force  and  learning.  '  Our  Lord,'  he  says, 
'  has  emphatically  told  us  that,  at  and  from  the  beginning, 
marriage  was  perpetual,  and  was  on  both  sides  single.' 
Again  :  '  Christian  marriage  is,  according  to  Holy  Script- 
ure, a  lifelong  compact,  which  may  sometimes  be  put  in 
abeyance  by  the  separation  of  a  couple,  but  which  can 
never  be  rightfully  dissolved  so  as  to  set  them  free  during 
their  joint  lives  to  unite  with  other  persons.'  He  dwelt 
with  pathetic  force  on  the  injustice  between  man  and  wom- 
an of  the  proposed  legislation,  which  would  entitle  the  hus- 
band to  divorce  from  an  unfaithful  wife,  but  would  give  no 
corresponding  protection  to  the  woman  ;  and  predicted  the 
gloomiest  consequences  to  the  conjugal  morality  of  the 
country  from  the  erection  of  this  new  and  odious  tribunal. 
The  general  soundness  of  these  views  and  these  anticipa- 
tions he  deliberatedly  vindicated  after  a  lapse  of  twenty- 
one  years. 

But  learning,  eloquence,  moral  sentiment,  and,  above 
all,  arguments  from  the  New  Testament  and  ecclesiastical 
tradition,  were  thrown  away  upon  a  Government  over  w^hich 
Lord  Palmerston  presided.  The  Divorce  Court  was  duly 
established ;  and  it  is  significant  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  state 


136  MR.  GLADSTONE 

of  mind  at  this  season  that,  in  the  autumn  of  the  year,  he 
said  to  the  friend  who  has  been  quoted  before  :  '  I  greatly 
felt  being  turned  out  of  office.  I  saw  great  things  to  do, 
I  longed  to  do  them.  I  am  losing  the  best  years  of  my  life 
out  of  my  natural  service.  Yet  I  have  never  ceased  to  re- 
joice that  I  am  not  in  office  with  Palmerston,  when  I  have 
seen  the  tricks,  the  shuffiings,  the  frauds  he  daily  has  re- 
course to  as  to  his  business.  I  rejoice  not  to  sit  on  the 
Treasury  Bench  with  him.' 

Ecclesiastical  difficulties  occupied  at  this  time  a  great 
share  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  attention.  The  conduct  of  some 
of  the  Bishops  in  respect  of  the  Divorce  Act  had  been  lit- 
tle less  than  scandalous,  and  he  seems  to  have  been  pain- 
fully impressed  by  the  weakness  of  the  Church  of  England 
in  her  capacity  of  Ecclesia  Docens,  and  by  the  need  of  some 
competent  tribunal  to  express  her  authoritative  judgment 
on  disputed  questions  of  doctrine  and  of  ecclesiastical  pro- 
cedure. The  following  letter  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  may  be 
profitably  read  in  connexion  with  Sir  James  Graham's  re- 
mark on  his  religious  opinions  quoted  a  few  pages  farther 
back : 

November  2, 1857. — It  is  neither  disestablishment,  nor  even 
loss  of  dogmatic  truth,  which  I  look  upon  as  the  greater  dan- 
ger before  us,  but  it  is  the  loss  of  those  elementary  principles 
of  right  and  wrong  on  which  Christianity  itself  must  be  built. 
The  present  position  of  the  Church  of  England  is  gradually 
approximating  to  the  Erastian  theory  that  the  business  of  an 
establishment  is  to  teach  all  sorts  of  doctrines  and  to  provide 
Christian  ordinances  by  way  of  comfort  for  all  sorts  of  people, 
to  be  used  at  their  own  option.  It  must  become,  if  uncorrect- 
ed, in  lapse  of  time  a  thoroughly  immoral  position.  Her  case 
seems  as  if  it  were  like  that  of  Cranmer — to  be  disgraced  first 
and  then  burned.  Now,  what  I  feel  is  that  the  Constitution 
of  the  Church  provides  the  means  of  bringing  controversy  to 


ECCLESIA  DOCENS  1 37 

issue ;  not  means  that  can  be  brought  at  all  times,  but  means 
that  are  to  be  effectually,  though  less  determinately,  available 
for  preventing  the  general  devastation  of  doctrine,  either  by 
a  positive  heresy,  or  by  that  thesis  I  have  named  above,  worse 
than  any  heresy.  Considering  that  the  condition  of  the 
Church  with  respect  to  doctrine  is  gradually  growing  into  an 
offence  to  the  moral  sense  of  mankind,  and  that  the  question 
is.  Shall  we  get,  if  we  can,  the  means  of  giving  expression  to 
her  mind  ?  I  confess  that  I  canifot  be  repelled  by  fears  con- 
nected with  the  state  of  the  episcopal  body  from  saying.  Yes. 
Let  me  have  it  if  I  can.  For,  regarding  the  Church  as  a  priv- 
ileged and  endowed  body,  no  less  than  as  one  with  spiritual 
prerogatives,  I  feel  these  two  things  :  If  the  mind  of  those  who 
ride  and  of  those  who  compose  the  Church  is  deliberately  anti- 
Catholic,  I  have  no  right  to  seek  a  hiding-place  within  the  pale 
of  her  possessions  by  keeping  her  in  a  condition  of  voicelessness, 
in  which  all  are  entitled  to  be  there,  because  none  are.  That 
is,  viewing  her  with  respect  to  the  enjoyment  of  her  temporal 
advantages  ;  spiritually,  how  can  her  life  be  saved  by  stopping 
her  from  the  exercise  of  functions  essential  to  her  condition  .'' 
It  may  be  said,  she  is  sick — wait  till  she  is  well.  My  answer 
is,  she  is  getting  more  and  more  sick  in  regard  to  her  own 
function  of  authoritatively  declaring  the  truth ;  let  us  see 
whether  her  being  called  upon  so  to  declare  it  may  not  be  the 
remedy,  or  a  remedy  at  least.  I  feel  certain  that  the  want  of 
combined  and  responsible  ecclesiastical  action  is  one  of  the 
main  evils,  and  that  the  regular  duty  of  such  action  will  tend 
to  check  the  spirit  of  individualism,  and  to  restore  that  belief 
in  a  Church  which  we  have  almost  lost.  The  Bishops  will 
act  much  better  from  acting  in  the  way  proposed,  and  the  very 
law  which  commits  it  to  them  so  to  act  will  in  itself  not  only 
do  much  for  the  ecclesiastical  principles  of  our  Constitution, 
but  still  more,  I  believe,  for  the  healthiness  of  our  moral  tone. 
I  can  bear  the  reproaches  of  those  who  say, '  You  believe  so 
and  so ;  you  have  no  business  to  believe  that  here :  go  else- 
where and  believe  it  if  you  please.'  I  know  that  it  would  be 
much  more  just  to  retort  them.  But  if  I  felt  that  I  am  my- 
self trying  to  gag  the  Church  of  England,  or  to  keep  in  her 


138  MR.  GLADSTONE 

mouth  the  gag  that  is  now  there,  I  should  not  feel  so  sure 
that  honesty  was  not  compromised  in  my  own  measure  by 
me.  It  is,  in  a  word,  the  desire  that  honesty  should  be  main- 
tained at  all  costs  which  governs  me  in  the  main,  and  would 
govern  me  even  if  I  saw  less  than  I  seem  to  do  of  conservative 
and  restorative  action  in  the  measure  itself. 

When  Parliament  met  in  February,  1858,  Lord  Palmer- 
ston  introduced  a  Bill  to  amend  the  law  of  conspiracy  to 
murder.  An  attempt  made  by  an  Italian  refugee — Felice 
Orsini — on  the  life  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon  had  created 
general  consternation,  and  the  adherents  of  the  Emperor 
were  loud  in  declaring  that  foreign  conspirators  in  London 
were  left  unmolested  by  the  authorities  while  they  planned 
the  murderous  plots  which  they  carried  out  in  foreign 
capitals.  To  meet  this  reproach.  Lord  Palmerston  pro- 
posed to  make  conspiracy  to  murder  a  felony,  punishable 
with  five  years'  penal  servitude.  This  proposal  was  stren- 
uously opposed  from  various  quarters  of  the  House,  and 
mainly  on  the  ground  that  the  English  Government  had 
been  actuated  by  an  unduly  anxious  desire  to  execute  the 
behests  of  the  Emperor.  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  Peelites 
joined  the  Conservatives  and  a  considerable  number  of  the 
Liberals  in  opposing  the  Bill,  and  it  was  defeated  by  a  ma- 
jority of  nineteen.  Lord  Palmerston  resigned.  Lord 
Derby  succeeded  him,  with  Mr.  Disraeli  as  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  and  Leader  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

Mr.  Gladstone  was  now  thoroughly  out  of  harmony  with 
Lord  Palmerston,  and  in  the  April  number  of  the  '  Quarterly 
Review'  he  expressed  his  strong  dissent  from  the  French 
policy  of  the  late  Government,  and  especially  from  the  'ill- 
starred  and  detested  measure '  for  altering  the  law  of  con- 
spiracy.    Lord  Palmerston,  he  said,  had  kept  his  seat  on 


'ALMOST   ON   MY   KNEES  '  1 39 

the  top  of  Fortune's  wheel,  'during  such  a  number  of  its 
revolutions,  as  had  all  but  covered  what  may  be  termed 
the  utmost  space  allowed  to  the  activity  of  human  life. 
But  suddenly  a  difficulty  that  he  himself  had  created,  as  if 
for  the  purpose,  by  a  contempt  of  the  most  ordinary  cau- 
tion and  the  best  established  customs,  caught  him  in  his 
giddy  elevation,  and  precipitated  the  old  favourite  of  millions 
into  the  depths  of  the  Tartarus  of  politics,  almost  without 
a  solitary  cry  of  regret  to  mingle  in  the  crash  of  his  fall,  or 
a  word  of  sympathy  to  break  its  force.' 

It  is  said  that  Lord  Derby,  when  he  formed  his  Adminis- 
tration, had  offered  Mr.  Gladstone  the  post  of  Secretary  of 
State  for  the  Colonies,  and  when,  a  few  months  later,  in 
consequence  of  difficulties  arising  out  of  the  Indian  Mutiny, 
Lord  EUenborough  resigned  the  Presidency  of  the  Board 
of  Control,  we  have  it  on  high  authority  that  the  most 
strenuous  efforts  were  made  to  induce  Mr.  Gladstone  to  fill 
the  vacant  place  in  the  Cabinet. 

Mr.  Greville  writes  on  May  23,  1858  : 

Derby  will  get  Gladstone  if  possible  to  take  the  India 
Board,  and  this  will  be  the  best  thing  that  can  happen.  His 
natural  course  is  to  be  at  the  head  of  a  Conservative  Govern- 
ment, and  he  may,  if  he  acts  with  prudence,  be  the  means  of 
raising  that  party  to  something  like  dignity  and  authority, 
and  emancipating  it  from  its  dependence  on  the  discreditable 
and  insincere  support  of  the  Radicals. 

Writing  in  1862  to  Bishop  Wilberforce,  Lord  Beaconsfield 
said,  'I  wish  you  could  have  induced  Gladstone  to  have 
joined  Lord  Derby's  Government  when  Lord  EUenborough 
resigned  in  1858.  It  was  not  my  fault  that  he  did  not :  I 
almost  went  on  my  knees  to  him.' 

This  is  a  truly  Disraelitish  touch  :  the  astute  old  schemer 


140  MR.  GLADSTONE 

'  almost  on  his  knees '  to  his  dreaded  and  detested  rival, 
imploring  him  to  take  a  prominent  place  in  the  Cabinet  of 
which  he  was  himself  the  ruUng  spirit.  It  is  a  delightful 
picture,  and  the  reason  for  the  genuflexion  is  not  far  to 
seek.  The  Leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  if  he  is  a 
man  of  character  and  intellect,  is  in  fact  the  Prime  Minis- 
ter. And  if  Mr.  Disraeli  could  have  induced  Mr.  Glad- 
stone to  become  his  colleague  and  submit  to  his  leadership, 
he  would  have  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  the 
one  contemporary  statesman  whose  powers  and  ambition 
were  equal  to  his  own  was  subordinated,  in  all  probability 
for  ever,  to  his  own  imperious  will.  When  a  man  joins  a 
political  party  in  his  fiftieth  year,  he  cannot  easily  forsake 
it.  Mr.  Gladstone,  if  he  became  a  Liberal,  would  chal- 
lenge, and  probably  attain,  the  supreme  place  in  Parlia- 
ment. If  he  returned  to  the  Tories,  with  Mr.  Disraeli 
leading  the  House,  he  would  be  doomed  to  a  position 
which,  however  high,  was  still  less  than  the  highest.  There 
was  indeed  a  grotesque  idea  of  sending  Mr.  Disraeli  to 
India  as  Governor-General.  Had  the  field  been  thus  left 
clear,  it  seems  probable  that  Mr  Gladstone  would  have  re- 
turned to  his  old  associations,  becoming  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  in  the  Tory  Government,  and  Leader  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  Events,  however,  were  otherwise 
ordered,  and  Mr.  Disraeli  continued  to  block  the  way. 

Though  he  saw,  and  prudently  declined,  the  snare  oblig- 
ingly set  for  him  by  a  master  of  parliamentary  manoeuvre, 
Mr,  Gladstone,  unhampered  by  binding  alliance  with  any 
political  party,  was  at  liberty  to  give  to  Lord  Derby's 
Government  his  valuable  support  in  debate  whenever  he 
deemed  that  they  deserved  it ;  but,  lest  the  entertainment 
should  partake  of  sameness,  he  appeared  not  seldom  in 


THE   IONIAN   ISLANDS  I4I 

the  character  of  the  candid  friend.  During  the  course  of 
the  Session,  we  find  Bishop  Wilberforce,  after  a  talk  with 
Lord  Aberdeen,  making  the  significant  entry  in  his  journal, 
'Gladstone  getting  more  averse  to  Disraeli.'  On  October 
1 6,  this  conversation  with  Lord  Aberdeen  is  recorded : 

'  Will  Gladstone  ever  rise  to  the  first  place  ?' 

'  Yes ;  I  have  no  doubt  he  will.  But  gradually,  after  an 
interval.  He  must  turn  the  hatred  of  many  into  affection 
first ;  and  he  will  turn  it  if  he  has  the  opportunity  given  him. 
Gladstone  has  some  faults  to  overcome.  He  is  too  obstinate. 
If  a  man  could  be  too  honest,  I  should  say  he  is  too  honest. 
He  does  not  enough  think  of  what  other  men  think.'  .  .  . 

'  Whom  is  he  to  head  Y 

'  Oh  !  it  is  impossible  to  say  !  Time  must  show,  and  new- 
combinations.  I  told  John  Russell  that  what  I  wished  to  see 
was,  him  in  the  House  of  Lords  at  the  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  Gladstone  leading  the  Commons.  .  .  .  He  could 
IrKsl  Gladstone  in  such  a  post,  which  he  could  hardly  any 
other  man.' 

When  a  Government  exists  by  sufferance  and  has  to 
reckon  on  the  periodical  criticisms  of  a  candid  friend  who 
is  also  a  most  formidable  debater,  prudence  dictates  to  get 
him,  if  possible,  out  of  the  way ;  and  it  was  probably  with 
this  view  that  in  1858  Lord  Derby  asked  Mr.  Gladstone  to 
go  out  as  Lord  High  Commissioner  Extraordinary  to  the 
Ionian  Isles.  The  inhabitants  of  these  islands,  which  had 
been  since  1815  under  English  protection,  desired  to  unite 
themselves  to  Greece.  The  task  of  governing  them  from 
England  had  become  difficult,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  was 
commissioned  to  examine  into  grievances  and  to  report  to 
the  Government  at  home.  He  went  out  full  of  sympathy 
with  the  people,  well  acquainted  with  their  history,  and 
keenly  alive  to  all  their  interests  and  associations. 


142  MR.  GLADSTONE 

On  December  3,  he  addressed  the  Senate  of  the  Ionian 
Islands  at  Corfu,  speaking  in  ItaUan.  He  announced  that 
'  the  hberties  guaranteed  by  the  Treaties  of  Paris,  and  by 
Ionian  law,  are,  in  the  eyes  of  her  Majesty,  sacred.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  purpose  for  which  she  has  sent  me  is 
not  to  enquire  into  the  British  Protectorate,  but  to  examine 
in  what  way  Great  Britain  may  most  honourably  and  amply 
discharge  the  obligations  which,  for  purposes  European 
and  Ionian  rather  than  British,  she  has  contracted.'  He 
concluded  with  a  characteristic  aspiration  for  the  happiness 
of  the  Ionian  people,  to  be  secured  by  '  the  double  union 
of  freedom  with  public  order,  and  of  knowledge  with  the 
Christian  faith.'  The  Lord  High  Commissioner  Extraor- 
dinary made  an  official  tour  of  the  islands,  holding  levees, 
receiving  deputations,  and  delivering  harangues.  He  prom- 
ised a  full  enquiry  into  every  grievance,  and  offered  an 
elaborate  system  of  constitutional  government,  which  Lord 
Aberdeen  called  fanciful.  The  lonians,  however,  had 
one,  and  only  one,  object — they  wished  to  be  united  with 
Greece.  The  Legislative  Assembly  of  the  Ionian  Islands, 
sitting  at  Corfu,  voted  an  address  to  the  Queen  praying 
for  the  annexation  of  their  republic  to  Greece.  The 
Lord  High  Commissioner  despatched  their  petition  to  the 
Queen,  and  then,  having  fulfilled  his  mission,  returned  to 
England. 

A  story  highly  characteristic  both  of  Mr.  Gladstone's 
severe  regard  for  public  economy,  and  of  the  late  Lord 
Lytton's  taste  for  display,  is  told  in  connexion  with  this 
mission.  Mr.  Gladstone  had  taken  the  utmost  pains  to 
keep  down  the  expenses  of  the  mission,  and  was  congratu- 
lating himself  on  his  success,  when,  just  towards  the  end, 
the  Colonial  Secretary,  Sir  Edward  Bulwer  Lytton,  as  he 


I 


TINKERING  AT   REFORM  143 

then  was,  desired  that  a  special  steamer  might  be  chartered 
in  order  to  convey  a  despatch  to  the  Lord  High  Commis- 
sioner, and  the  cost  of  this  steamer  of  course  dislocated  all 
Mr.  Gladstone's  economical  schemes. 

When  the  Queen  opened  Parliament  on  February  3, 1859, 
she  announced  in  the  Speech  from  the  Throne  that  the 
attention  of  the  Legislature  would  be  called  to  the  state  of 
the  law  regulating  the  representation  of  the  people.  On 
the  28th,  Mr.  Disraeli  unfolded  the  ministerial  plan.  It 
was  a  fanciful  performance.  The  Government,  said  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  proposed,  not  to  alter  the 
limits  of  the  franchise,  but  to  introduce  into  boroughs  a 
new  kind  of  franchise  founded  on  personal  property,  and 
to  give  a  vote  to  persons  having  property  to  the  amount 
of  10/.  a  year  in  the  Funds,  Bank  Stock,  and  East  India 
Stock.  Persons  having  60/.  in  a  Savings  Bank  would,  un- 
der the  Bill,  be  electors  for  the  borough  in  which  they  re- 
sided ;  as  also  recipients  of  pensions  in  the  naval,  military, 
and  civil  services,  amounting  to  20/.  a  year.  Lodgers, 
graduates,  ministers  of  religion,  solicitors,  doctors,  and 
schoolmasters  were,  under  certain  conditions,  enfranchised, 
and  the  Government  proposed  to  recognize  the  principle 
of  identity  of  suffrage  between  the  counties  and  towns. 
Two  members  of  the  Government  promptly  resigned  rather 
than  be  parties  to  these  proposals.  Lord  John  Russell 
moved  an  amendment  condemning  interference  with  the 
franchise  which  enabled  freeholders  in  boroughs  to  vote  in 
counties,  and  demanding  a  wider  extension  of  the  suffrage 
in  boroughs.  Mr.  Gladstone,  though  agreeing  with  Lord 
John  in  these  particulars,  declined  to  support  the  amend- 
ment, because,  if  carried,  it  would  upset  the  Government 
and  bring  in  a  weaker  Administration.     He  did  not  profess 


144  MR.  GLADSTONE 

to  support  the  Government,  but  he  desired  to  see  a  settle- 
ment of  the  question  of  reform,  and  he  thought  the  present 
opportunity  advantageous  for  such  settlement.  He  pleaded 
eloquently  for  the  retention  of  the  small  boroughs.  He 
voted,  therefore,  for  the  second  reading  of  the  Bill,  but  it 
was  lost  by  a  majority  of  thirty-nine.  Lord  Derby  advised 
the  Queen  to  dissolve  Parliament,  and  this  was  done  on 
April  23.  Mr.  Gladstone  was  returned  unopposed  for  the 
University  of  Oxford.  The  first  Session  of  the  new  Par- 
liament was  opened  by  the  Queen  on  June  7.  An  amend- 
ment to  the  Address  in  reply  to  the  Speech  from  the 
Throne  was  moved,  in  a  maiden  speech,  by  Lord  Harting- 
ton.  It  was  simply  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence  in  the 
Ministers.  After  three  nights'  debate,  it  was  carried  on 
June  10  by  a  majority  of  thirteen,  Mr.  Gladstone  voting 
with  the  Government.  Lord  Derby  and  his  colleagues 
immediately  resigned.  The  Queen,  naturally  averse  to 
the  '  invidious  and  unwelcome  task '  of  choosing  between 
Lord  Palmerston  and  Lord  John  Russell,  turned,  in  her 
perplexity,  to  Lord  Granville,  who  led  the  Liberal  party  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  He  failed  to  form  an  Administra- 
tion, and  Lord  Palmerston  again  became  Prime  Minister, 
Lord  John  Russell  joined  him  as  Foreign  Secretary,  and 
Mr.  Gladstone  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  A  spirited 
opposition  to  Mr.  Gladstone's  candidature  was  immediately 
organized  at  Oxford.  Lord  Chandos,  afterwards  last  Duke 
of  Buckingham,  came  forward  as  the  Conservative  candi- 
date. Professor  Mansel,  afterwards  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  was 
chairman  of  his  committee.  The  traditions  of  the  Univer- 
sity forbade  the  candidates  to  address  the  electors  by  word 
of  mouth,  but  Mr.  Mansel  issued  a  manifesto  in  which  this 
passage  occurred : 


AN   ABRUPT   TRANSITION  145 

By  his  acceptance  of  office,  Mr.  Gladstone  must  now  be 
considered  as  giving  his  definite  adhesion  to  the  Liberal  party, 
as  at  present  reconstructed,  and  as  approving  of  the  policy  of 
those  who  overthrew  Lord  Derby's  Government  on  the  late 
division.  By  his  vote  on  that  division,  Mr.  Gladstone  ex- 
pressed his  confidence  in  the  Administration  of  Lord  Derby. 
By  accepting  office,  he  now  expresses  his  confidence  in  the 
Administration  of  Lord  Derby's  opponent  and  successor. 

Mr.  Gladstone  naturally  took  a  very  different  view  of 
this  rather  complicated  transaction,  and  he  explained  it  in 
a  long  and  elaborate  letter  to  Dr.  Hawkins,  the  Provost  of 
Oriel : 

Various  differences  of  opinion  (he  said),  both  on  foreign 
and  domestic  matters,  separated  me,  during  great  part  of  the 
Administration  of  Lord  Palmerston,  from  a  body  of  men  with 
the  majority  of  whom  I  had  acted,  and  had  acted  in  perfect 
harmony,  under  Lord  Aberdeen.  I  promoted  the  vote  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  in  February  of  last  year,  which  led  to  the 
downfall  of  that  Ministry.  Such  having  been  the  case,  I 
thought  it  my  clear  duty  to  support,  as  far  as  I  was  able,  the 
Government  of  Lord  Derby.  Accordingly,  on  the  various  oc- 
casions during  the  existence  of  the  late  Parliament  when  they 
were  seriously  threatened  with  danger  of  embarrassment,  I 
found  myself,  like  many  other  independent  members,  lending 
them  such  assistance  as  was  in  my  power.  And,  although  I 
could  not  concur  in  the  late  Reform  Bill,  and  considered  the 
dissolution  to  be  singularly  ill-advised,  I  still  was  unwilling 
to , found  on  such  disapproval  a  vote  in  favour  of  the  motion 
of  Lord  Hartington,  which  appeared  to  imply  a  course  of  pre- 
vious opposition,  and  which  has  been  the  immediate  cause  of 
the  change  of  Ministers.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  was,  I 
think,  manifest  that,  while  I  had  not  the  smallest  claim  on  the 
victorious  part}',  my  duty  as  towards  the  late  advisers  of  the 
Crown  had  been  fully  discharged.  It  is  hardly  needful  to  say 
that,  previously  to  the  recent  vote,  there  was  no  negotiation 
or  understanding  with  me  in  regard  to  office ;  but  when  Lord 
10 


146  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Palmerston  had  undertaken  to  form  a  Cabinet,  he  acquainted 
me  with  his  desire  that  I  should  join  it.  .  .  . 

With  respect  to  reform,  I  understood  the  counsels  of  Mr. 
Walpole  and  Mr.  Henley,  and  I  believe  if  they  had  been  fol- 
lowed the  subject  of  reform  would  in  all  likelihood  have  been 
settled  at  this  date,  without  either  a  dissolution  of  Parliament 
or  a  change  of  Administration.  But  I  have  never  understood 
the  principles  on  which  that  sabject  has  been  managed  since 
the  schism  in  the  late  Government.  I  also  think  it  undeni- 
able that  the  fact  of  the  dissolution,  together  with  the  return 
of  an  adverse  and  now  no  longer  indulgent  majority,  rendered 
the  settlement  of  this  question  by  the  late  Ministers  impossi- 
ble. I  therefore  naturally  turn  to  the  hope  of  its  being  set- 
tled by  a  Cabinet  mainly  constituted  and  led  by  the  men  to- 
gether with  whom  I  was  responsible  for  framing  and  proposing 
a  Reform  Bill  in  1854.  .  .  , 

I  understand  that  misgiving  exists  with  respect  to  my  sit- 
ting in  a  Cabinet  of  which  Mr.  Gibson  is  a  member,  and  which 
Mr.  Cobden  is  invited  to  join.  The  very  same  feelings  were 
expressed,  as  I  well  recollect,  when  the  late  Sir  William  Moles- 
worth  entered  the  Cabinet  of  Lord  Aberdeen.  Sir  William 
Molesworth  never,  to  my  knowledge,  compromised  his  politi- 
cal independence  ;  and  these  apprehensions  were,  I  think,  not 
justified  by  the  subsequent  course  of  events.  .  .  . 

Were  I  permitted  the  mode  of  address  usual  upon  elec- 
tions, I  should,  after  this  preliminary  explanation,  proceed  to 
submit  with  confidence  to  my  constituents  that,  as  their  rep- 
resentative, I  have  acted  according  to  the  obligations  which 
their  choice  and  favour  brought  upon  me,  and  that  the  Min- 
istry which  has  thought  fit  to  desire  my  co-operation  is  en- 
titled in  my  person,  as  well  as  otherwise,  to  be  exempt  from 
condemnation  at  the  first  moment  of  its  existence.  Its  title 
to  this  extent  is  perhaps  the  more  clear,  because  among  its 
early  as  well  as  its  very  gravest  duties  will  be  the  proposal  of 
a  Reform  Bill  which,  if  it  be  accepted  by  Parliament,  must 
lead,  after  no  long  interval,  to  a  fresh  general  appeal  to  the 
people,  and  will  thus  afford  a  real  opportunity  of  judging 
whether  public  men  associated  in  the  present  Cabinet  have  or 


NESTOR  AND    ULYSSES  I47 

have  not  forfeited  by  that  act,  or  by  its  legitimate  conse- 
quences, any  confidence  of  which  they  may  previously  have 
been  thought  worthy. 

The  contest  was  brisk  and  animated,  and  when  the  poll 
closed  Mr.  Gladstone  was  returned  by  a  majority  of  191 
over  Lord  Chandos.  He  had  polled  twenty-eight  more 
votes  than  on  taking  office  in  1853,  and  his  opponent 
thirty-six  less.  His  separation  from  his  old  party  was  now 
complete.  His  hand  was  fairly  set  to  the  plough,  and 
there  was  no  more  looking  back.  He  had  taken  suit  and 
service  with  the  Liberals,  and  henceforward  his  growth  in 
the  principles  of  freedom  and  progress  was  to  be  continu- 
ous and  often  rapid. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  brilliant  convert 
from  Toryism  soon  became  allied  by  a  bond  of  peculiar 
sympathy  with  the  Nestor  of  the  Whigs ;  and  in  the  most 
crucial  questions  which  engaged  the  attention  of  the  Cabi- 
net Lord  John  Russell  and  Mr.  Gladstone  agreed  with 
and  supported  one  another.  Mr.  Gladstone  worked  heart- 
ily, alike  in  the  Cabinet  and  the  House,  for  the  Reform 
Bill  on  which  Lord  John  Russell  had  set  his  affections  ; 
and  Lord  John  shared  Mr.  Gladstone's  dislike  of  the  im- 
mense expenditure  on  fortifications  which  Lord  Palmerston 
compelled  his  colleagues  to  undertake.  With  reference  to 
Mr.  Gladstone's  scruples  on  this  subject.  Lord  Palmerston 
wrote  this  amazing  letter  to  the  Queen :  '  Viscount  Palm- 
erston hopes  to  be  able  to  overcome  his  objections,  but, 
if  that  should  prove  impossible,  however  great  the  loss  to 
the  Government  by  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  it 
would  be  better  to  lose  Mr.  Gladstone  than  to  run  the  risk 
of  losing  Portsmouth  or  Plymouth.' 

Not  less  extraordinary  is  the  mode  in  which  the  Prime 


148  MR.    GLADSTONE 

Minister  announced  to  the  Sovereign  that  his  colleague's 
scruples  had  been  overcome.  '  Mr.  Gladstone  told  Vis- 
count Palmerston  this  evening  that  he  wished  it  to  be  un- 
derstood that,  though  acquiescing  in  the  step  now  taken 
about  the  fortifications,  he  kept  himself  free  to  take  such 
course  as  he  may  think  fit  upon  that  subject  next  year ;  to 
which  Viscount  Palmerston  entirely  assented.  That  course 
will  probably  be  the  same  which  Mr.  Gladstone  has  taken 
this  year — namely,  ineffectual  opposition  and  ultimate  ac- 
quiescence.' 

To  this  period  belongs  the  following  grotesque  passage 
from  Lord  Malmesbury's  diary :  '  Gladstone,  who  was  al- 
ways fond  of  music,  is  now  quite  enthusiastic  about  negro 
melodies,  singing  them  with  the  greatest  spirit  and  enjoy- 
ment, never  leaving  out  a  verse,  and  evidently  preferring 
such  as  "  Camp  Town  Races."  ' 

Having  been  elected  Lord  Rector  of  the  University  of 
Edinburgh,  he  was  installed  in  office,  on  April  i6,  i860, 
and  delivered  his  inaugural  address  on  the  work  of  Uni- 
versities. From  singing  nigger  melodies,  to  discoursing 
on  the  possibilities  of  higher  education  and  preparing 
financial  statements,  the  transition  is  certainly  abrupt,  but 
all  forms  of  effort  seem  to  have  been  equally  natural  to 
the  versatile  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  The  Prince 
Consort  writes  :  '  Gladstone  is  now  the  real  Leader  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  works  with  an  energy  and  vigour 
altogether  incredible.' 

The  Budget  of  i860  was  marked  by  two  distinctive 
features.  It  asked  the  sanction  of  Parliament  to  the  com- 
mercial treaty  which  Mr.  Cobden,  acting  in  the  first  in- 
stance on  his  own  responsibility,  had  privately  arranged 
with  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  and  it  proposed  the  abolition 


THE   PAPER   DUTY  I49 

of  the  duty  on  paper.  By  the  commercial  treaty  France 
undertook  to  remove  all  prohibitory  duties  on  British 
manufactures,  and  to  reduce  the  duties  on  our  raw  materi- 
als ;  while  England  was  to  abolish  duties  on  foreign  manu- 
factures, and  to  reduce  the  duties  on  foreign  wines. 
On  February  15  Mr.  Greville  writes : 

When  I  left  London  a  fortnight  ago  the  world  was  anx- 
iously expecting  Gladstone's  speech,  in  which  he  was  to  put 
the  Commercial  Treaty  and  the  Budget  before  the  world.  His 
own  confidence  and  that  of  most  of  his  colleagues  in  his  suc- 
cess was  unbounded,  but  many  inveighed  bitterly  against  the 
Treaty,  and  looked  forward  with  great  alarm  and  aversion  to 
the  Budget.  Clarendon  shook  his  head,  Overstone  pro- 
nounced against  the  Treaty,  the  '  Times  '  thundered  against  it, 
and  there  is  little  doubt  that  it  was  unpopular,  and  becoming 
more  so  every  day.  Then  came  Gladstone's  unlucky  illness, 
which  compelled  him  to  put  oil  his  expose,  and  made  it  doubt- 
ful whether  he  would  not  be  physically  disabled  from  doing 
justice  to  the  subject.  His  doctor  says  he  ought  to  have  taken 
two  months'  rest  instead  of  two  days.  However,  at  the  end 
of  his  two  days'  delay  he  came  forth,  and  consensit  omnium 
achieved  one  of  the  greatest  triumphs  that  the  House  of  Com- 
mons ever  witnessed.  Everybody  I  have  heard  from  admits 
that  it  was  a  magnificent  display,  not  to  be  surpassed  in  abil- 
ity of  execution,  and  that  he  carried  the  House  of  Commons 
completely  with  him.  I  can  well  believe  it,  for  when  I  read 
the  report  of  it  next  day  it  carried  me  along  with  it  likewise. 

February  22. — I  returned  to  town  on  Monday.  The  same 
night  a  battle  took  place  in  the  House  of  Commons,  in  which 
Gladstone  signally  defeated  Disraeli,  and  Government  got  so 
good  a  majority  that  it  looks  like  the  harbinger  of  complete 
success  for  their  Treaty  and  their  Budget.  Everybody  agrees 
nothing  could  be  more  brilliant  and  complete  than  Gladstone's 
triumph. 

February  26. — On  Friday  night  Gladstone  had  another 
great  triumph.     He  made  a  splendid  speech,  and  maintained 


150  MR.  GLADSTONE 

a  majority  of  116,  which  puts  an  end  to  the  contest.  He  is 
now  the  great  man  of  the  day.  ,  .  .  Clarendon,  who  watches 
him  and  has  means  of  knowing  his  disposition,  thinks  that  he 
is  moving  towards  a  Democratic  union  with  Bright,  the  efifect 
of  which  will  be  increased  income-tax,  and  lowering  the  Esti- 
mates by  giving  up  the  defences  of  the  country. 

A  second  feature  of  the  Budget,  scarcely  less  important 
than  the  Treaty  with  France,  was  the  abolition  of  the  duty 
on  paper.  That  duty  was  a  heavy  tax  on  knowledge.  To 
abolish  it  would  be  to  make  the  production  of  all  books 
easier  and  cheaper,  and  particularly  to  quicken  the  devel- 
opment of  cheap  newspapers.  Vague  alarms  were  aroused. 
Obscurantism  and  reaction  did  their  best  to  perplex  the 
public  mind.  All  the  forces  which  dread  the  spread  of 
knowledge  among  the  masses  of  mankind  took  up  arms 
against  Mr.  Gladstone's  proposal,  and  made  common  cause 
with  the  manufacturers  of  paper  and  the  proprietors  of  ex- 
pensive newspapers.  Manufacturers  and  proprietors  or- 
ganized themselves  in  defence  of  their  lucrative  monopo- 
lies. The  ministerial  proposal  was  not  enthusiastically 
supported  in  the  House  of  Commons :  the  second  reading 
of  the  Bill  had  been  carried  by  fifty-three,  the  third  was 
carried  by  nine.  In  reference  to  this  diminution  of  sup- 
port the  Queen  received  from  Lord  Palmerston  a  letter 
even  more  grossly  disloyal  to  his  colleague  than  those  al- 
ready quoted : 

This  may  probably  encourage  the  House  of  Lords  to  throw 
out  the  Bill  when  it  comes  to  their  House,  and  Viscount 
Palmerston  is  bound  in  duty  to  say  that,  if  they  do  so,  they 
will  perform  a  good  public  service.  Circumstances  have 
greatly  changed  since  the  measure  was  agreed  to  by  the  Cabi- 
net, and  although  it  would  undoubtedly  have  been  difficult  for 
the  Government  to  have  given  up  the  Bill,  yet,  if  Parliament 


OPPOSITION   TO   THE   PAPER   DUTY  151 

were  to  reject  it,  the  Government  might  well  submit  to  so 
welcome  a  defeat. 

What  Lord  Palmerston  predicted  came  to  pass,  and 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  he  did  much  to  secure  the 
accomplishment  of  his  own  prediction.  The  diminution 
of  the  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons  encouraged  the 
House  of  Lords,  always  ready  and  eager  for  such  work,  to 
oppose  an  effort  for  popular  enlightenment.  Lord  Mont- 
eagle,  a  renegade  Liberal,  headed  the  resistance  of  the 
Peers,  and  he  was  reinforced  by  the  dashing  eloquence  of 
Lord  Derby  and  the  argumentative  skill  of  Lord  Lynd- 
hurst,  whose  speech  was  delivered  on  his  eighty  -  eighth 
birthday.  Thus  emboldened,  the  Lords  threw  out  the  Pa- 
per Duty  Bill  by  a  majority  of  89.  It  was  a  momentous 
vote.  The  House  of  Commons,  in  the  exercise  of  its  un- 
doubted privilege,  had  determined  to  remit  a  tax;  the 
House  of  Lords  determined  to  continue  it.  This  act  of 
the  Peers  was  in  effect  an  act  of  taxation,  and  as  such  was 
vehemently  and  indignantly  repudiated  by  all  lovers  of 
constitutional  freedom.  Lord  Palmerston,  willing  to  avert 
a  conflict  between  the  Houses,  appointed  a  Committee  to 
enquire  into  precedents.  This  was  a  merely  dilatory  mo- 
tion. After  two  months'  enquiry,  the  Committee  present- 
ed a  guarded  and  colorless  report,  on  which  Lord  Palmer- 
ston moved  some  resolutions  asserting  in  very  general 
terms  the  right  of  the  Commons  to  impose  taxation,  and, 
in  effect,  apologized  for  the  action  of  the  Lords.  This 
gave  Mr.  Gladstone  his  opportunity.  His  ardent  temper, 
ruffled  by  the  rejection  of  his  financial  scheme,  had  not 
been  soothed  by  Lord  Palmerston's  sportsmanlike  conso- 
lation :  '  Of  course  you  are  mortified  and  disappointed ; 
but  your  disappointment  is  nothing  to  mine,  who  had  a 


152  MR.  GLADSTONE 

horse  with  whom  I  hoped  to  win  the  Derby,  and  he  went 
amiss  at  the  last  moment.'  He  had  been  very  near  re- 
signing, and  he  now  gave  vent  to  his  indignation  in  a 
speech  aimed  as  directly  as  the  decencies  of  official  life 
would  permit  against  Lord  Palmerston.  He  declared  that 
the  action  of  the  Lords  was  a  gigantic  innovation.  The 
House  of  Commons  had  the  undoubted  right  of  selecting 
the  manner  in  which  the  people  should  be  taxed,  and  they 
were  bound  to  preserve  that  precious  deposit  intact.  The 
resolutions  of  the  Committee  were  all  very  well  in  their 
way,  but  he  was  prepared  to  go  further.  He  reserved  to 
himself  the  right  to  take  such  action  as  should  give  effect 
to  the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

This  speech  was  pronounced  by  Lord  Russell  'mag- 
nificently mad,'  and  Lord  Granville  said,  on  July  7,  that  '  it 
was  a  toss-up  whether  Gladstone  resigned  or  not,  and  that, 
if  he  did,  it  would  break  up  the  Liberal  party.'  But  ev- 
erything calmed  down,  and  the  action  which  Mr.  Gladstone 
had  threatened  was  taken  in  the  Budget  of  the  following 
year  (1861),  and  in  an  adroit  and  effective  form.  The 
chief  proposals  of  that  Budget,  including  the  repeal  of 
the  duty  on  paper,  instead  of  being  divided,  as  in  previous 
years,  into  several  Bills,  were  included  in  one.  By  this 
device  the  House  of  Lords  was  bound  to  acquiesce  in  the 
repeal  of  the  paper  duty,  or  else  to  incur  the  responsibility 
of  rejecting  the  whole  financial  scheme  for  the  year.  Of 
course,  the  Peers  and  their  henchmen  grumbled  at  this 
device.  Lord  Robert  Cecil,  now  Lord  Salisbury,  distin- 
guished himself  by  the  studied  rudeness  of  his  attack.  He 
had  said  that  the  conduct  of  the  Government  was  only 
worthy  of  a  country  attorney.  He  now  begged  to  apolo- 
gize to  the  attorneys.     They  were  very  humble  men,  but 


CULTURE   AND   FAITH  I  53 

they  would  have  scorned  the  course  which  the  Queen's 
Ministers  had  pursued.  An  apostate  Whig,  by  protesting 
that  the  Budget  was  a  mortal  stab  to  the  Constitution, 
gave  Mr.  Gladstone  the  opportunity  for  an  excellent  re- 
tort : 

I  want  to  know  what  Constitution  it  gives  a  mortal  stab 
to.  In  my  opinion  it  gives  no  stab  at  all ;  but,  as  far  as  it  alters, 
it  alters  so  as  to  revive  and  restore  the  good  old  Constitution 
which  took  its  root  in  Saxon  times,  which  groaned  under  the 
Plantagenets,  which  endured  the  hard  rule  of  the  Tudors, 
which  resisted  the  Stuarts,  and  which  had  now  come  to  ma- 
turity under  the  House  of  Brunswick.  I  think  that  Constitu- 
tion will  be  all  the  better  for  the  operation.  As  to  the  Con- 
stitution laid  down  by  my  right  hon.  friend,  under  which  there 
is  to  be  a  division  of  function  and  office  between  the  House 
of  Commons  and  the  House  of  Lords — with  regard  to  fixing 
the  income  and  charge  of  the  country  from  year  to  year,  both 
of  them  being  equally  responsible  for  it,  which  means  that 
neither  would  be  responsible — as  far  as  that  Constitution  is 
concerned,  I  cannot  help  saying  that,  in  my  humble  opinion, 
the  sooner  it  receives  a  mortal  stab  the  better. 

The  Bill  passed  safely  through  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  though  the  Duke  of  Rutland  was  rash  enough 
to  urge  the  House  of  Lords  to  throw  it  out,  Lord  Derby 
was  too  prudent  to  sanction  such  a  course,  and  it  passed 
into  law  without  a  division.  The  Peers  had  tried  conclu- 
sions with  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  had  come  off  second-best. 

On  August  29,  186 1,  Mr.  Gladstone  addressed  to  a 
member  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  Public  Schools  a  re- 
markable letter  on  the  merits  of  classical  education.  The 
following  passage  deserves  citation,  both  as  an  interesting 
contribution  to  an  important  controversy  and  as  a  valuable 
illustration  of  the  writer's  mind  : 


154  MR.  GLADSTONE 

The  modern  European  civilization  from  the  Middle  Age 
downwards  is  the  compound  of  two  great  factors,  the  Chris- 
tian religion  for  the  spirit  of  man,  and  the  Greek  (and,  in  a 
secondary  degree,  the  Roman)  discipline  for  his  mind  and  in- 
tellect. St.  Paul  is  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  and  is  in  his 
own  person  a  symbol  of  this  great  wedding.  The  place,  for 
example,  of  Aristotle  and  Plato  in  Christian  education  is  not 
arbitrary  nor  in  principle  mutable.  The  materials  of  what  we 
call  classical  training  were  prepared,  and,  we  have  a  right  to 
say,  were  advisedly  and  providentially  prepared,  in  order  that 
it  might  become,  not  a  mere  adjunct,  but  (in  mathematical 
phrase)  the  complement  of  Christianity  in  its  application  to 
the  culture  of  the  human  being,  as  a  being  formed  both  for 
this  world  and  for  the  world  to  come. 

In  April,  1862,  Mr.  Gladstone  delivered  at  Manchester, 
before  the  Association  of  Lancashire  and  Cheshire  Me- 
chanics' Institutes,  an  eloquent  and  feeling  address  on  the 
Prince  Consort,  who  bad  died  in  the  preceding  December, 
and  pointed  out  the  eminent  services  which  he  had  ren- 
dered to  the  diffusion  of  useful  knowledge  and  popular 
cultivation. 

To  the  year  1862  belongs  a  notable  instance  of  the  fal- 
libility which  besets  even  the  cleverest  men,  with  the  am- 
plest opportunities  of  knowledge,  when  they  trust  them- 
selves to  speculate  upon  the  issue  of  political  events. 
Civil  war  had  broken  out  in  America.  A  quarrel,  origi- 
nating in  a  question  of  constitutional  law,  had  become 
complicated  and  infinitely  embittered  by  the  introduction 
of  a  moral  element.  Whatever  the  official  pretext,  men 
were  really  fighting,  not  to  try  the  claim  of  each  State  in 
the  Union  to  autonomy,  but  to  decide  whether  slavery, 
odious  alike  to  God  and  man,  should  still  be  numbered 
among  the  institutions  of  the  American  republic.  The 
Southern  States  had  begun  hostilities.     They  had  formed 


NORTH   AND   SOUTH  1 55 

themselves  into  a  confederacy  and  elected  a  president. 
The  English  Government  issued  a  proclamation  of  neu- 
trality, warning  all  subjects  of  the  Queen  against  helping 
either  of  the  belligerents.  This  was  practically  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  South  as  a  separate  Power,  and  the  sensibili- 
ties of  the  North  were  naturally  aroused.  England  had 
rushed  to  extend  equality  of  treatment  to  a  friendly  State 
and  its  rebellious  subjects.  On  October  9,  1862,  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  speaking  at  Newcastle,  used 
words  which  deepened  this  unfortunate  impression.  There 
could  be  no  doubt,  he  said,  that  Jefferson  Davis  had  made 
a  nation  of  the  South.  This  utterance  created  an  immense 
sensation  at  the  time,  and  five  years  afterwards  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, having,  in  the  interval,  been  taught  by  events,  made 
his  confession  of  error  in  these  memorable  words  : 

I  must  confess  that  I  was  wrong ;  that  I  took  too  much 
upon  myself  in  expressing  such  an  opinion.  Yet  the  motive 
was  not  bad.  My  sympathies  were  then  —  where  they  had 
long  before  been,  where  they  are  now — with  the  whole  Amer- 
ican people.  I  probably,  like  many  Europeans,  did  not  under- 
stand the  nature  and  working  of  the  American  Union.  I 
had  imbibed  conscientiously,  if  erroneously,  an  opinion  that 
twenty  or  twenty-four  millions  of  the  North  would  be  happier 
and  would  be  stronger  (of  course  assuming  that  they  would 
hold  together)  without  the  South  than  with  it,  and  also  that 
the  negroes  would  be  much  nearer  to  emancipation  under 
a  Southern  Government  than  under  the  old  system  of  the 
Union,  which  had  not  at  that  date  (August,  1862)  been  aban- 
doned, and  which  always  appeared  to  me  to  place  the  whole 
power  of  the  North  at  the  command  of  the  slave-holding  in- 
terests of  the  South.  As  far  as  regards  the  special  or  separate 
interest  of  England  in  the  matter,  I,  differing  from  many  oth- 
ers, had  always  contended  that  it  was  best  for  our  interest 
that  the  Union  should  be  kept  entire. 


156  MR.  GLADSTONE 


CHAPTER  VII 

Growth  in  Liberal  principles  —  The  General  Election  of  1865 — De- 
feated at  Oxford — Returned  for  South  Lancashire — Death  of  Lord 
Palmerston — Leader  of  the  House  of  Commons — The  Reform  Bill 
— The  Cave  of  Adullam — Defeat  and  resignation. 

A  CALM,  which  could  scarcely  be  described  as  holy,  but 
was  certainly  profound,  had  settled  down  on  English  poli- 
tics. Europe  and  America  were  disturbed  by  wars  and 
rumours  of  wars,  but  England  was  at  peace.  Material 
prosperity  exercised  its  sedative  influence.  The  revenue 
advanced  by  leaps  and  bounds.  Political  agitation  had 
died  away  for  lack  of  workable  material.  Much  of  this 
tranquillity  was  due  to  Lord  Palmerston,  That  remarka- 
ble man,  now  on  the  verge  of  eighty,  had  been  established 
by  the  election  of  1859  in  a  position  of  undisputed  su- 
premacy. His  policy  abroad  had  been  active  and  turbu- 
lent enough :  at  home  it  was  easy-going  to  the  point  of 
lethargy.  His  strength  was  to  sit  still.  Yielding  to  the 
urgent  representations  of  Lord  John  Russell,  he  had  pre- 
sented a  very  mild  Reform  Bill  in  i860.  The  Bill  had 
proved,  as  it  deserved  to  be,  abortive,  and  it  became  gen- 
erally understood  that,  as  long  as  Lord  Palmerston  lived, 
there  was  to  be  no  more  nonsense  of  this  sort.  When 
the  Radical  butcher  at  Tiverton  asked  him  why  he  and 
his  colleagues  did  not  bring  in  another  Reform  Bill,  he 


THE  CALM  BEFORE  THE  STORM       1 57 

airily  replied,  '  Because  we  are  not  geese ' ;  and  this  was 
all  the  satisfaction  that  sincere  reformers,  and  Liberals 
who  were  in  earnest  about  their  beliefs,  could  obtain  from 
their  venerable  leader.  No  wonder  that  under  these  cir- 
cumstances the  relations  between  Lord  Palmerston  and 
his  supporters  became  a  little  strained,  and  that  thought- 
ful men,  regarding  the  enormous  interests  which  hung 
upon  the  single  thread  of  a  life  already  far  prolonged, 
began  to  speculate  on  the  forces  which  his  death  would 
loose,  and  to  enquire  who  was  to  direct  them.  The  Par- 
liament of  1859-65  is  interesting,  not  for  anything  which 
it  accomplished,  but  because  it  afforded  the  first  indica- 
tions of  tremendous  changes  which  were  soon  to  come. 
Everyone  saw  and  felt  the  tempest  which  was  looming, 
and  only  wondered  when  it  would  break  and  what  it  would 
destroy.  At  such  times  of  subdued  but  eager  expectation 
there  is  peculiar  value  in  the  observations  of  a  shrewd  on- 
looker who,  free  from  the  distracting  bias  of  party,  can 
regard  political  events  with  the  penetrating  but  unimpas- 
sioned  gaze  which  a  biologist  or  an  astronomer  fixes  upon 
the  phenomena  of  nature.  Such  an  onlooker  was  Bishop 
Wilberforce. 

In  1863  he  writes  :  'That  wretched  Pam  seems  to  me 
to  get  worse  and  worse.  There  is  not  a  particle  of  veraci- 
ty or  noble  feeling  that  I  have  ever  been  able  to  trace  in 
him.  He  manages  the  House  of  Commons  by  debauching 
it,  making  all  parties  laugh  at  one  another:  the  Tories  at 
the  Liberals,  by  his  defeating  all  Liberal  measures ;  the 
Liberals  at  the  Tories,  by  their  consciousness  of  getting 
everything  that  is  to  be  got  in  Church  and  State ;  and  all 
at  one  another,  by  substituting  low  ribaldry  for  argument, 
bad  jokes  for  principle,  and  an  openly-avowed,  vainglori- 


158  MR.  GLADSTONE 

ous,  imbecile  vanity  as  a  panoply  to  guard  himself  from 
the  attacks  of  all  thoughtful  men.  I  think  if  his  life  lasts 
long,  it  must  cost  us  the  slight  remains  of  Constitutional 
Government  which  exist  among  us.' 

On  October  17  in  the  same  year,  the  Bishop  records 
that  Mr.  Speaker  Denison  said  :  '  I  now  anticipate  that 
Gladstone  will  be  Premier.  Neither  party  has  any  leader. 
I  hope  that  Gladstone  may  get  support  from  the  Conserv- 
atives who  now  support  Palmerston.  Palmerston  spe- 
cially well  and  young.'  A  few  days  later  :  '  Long  talk  with 
Gladstone  as  to  Premiership ;  he  for  acting  under  John 
Russell.' 

On  December  10  he  writes :  'Hayward  says  that  Lord 
Palmerston  is  far  better  this  year  than  last.  "  Last  year 
I  could  beat  him  at  billiards,  but  this  year  he  plays  so 
much  better  a  game  that  he  beat  me  easily."  ...  Sir  H. 
Holland,  who  got  back  safe  from  all  his  American  ram- 
bles, has  been  taken  by  Palmerston  through  the  river  at 
Broadlands  and  lies  very  ill.  The  Dean  of  Lincoln  (Gar- 
nier)  is  just  dead,  and  another  deanery  for  Palmerston  to 
abuse  vacant.'  '  Lord  Palmerston's  wicked  appointments 
meet  us  here  at  every  turn.' 

On  July  8,  1864,  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence  in  the 
Government  was  carried  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Just  be- 
fore he  went  down  to  vote  for  it  the  Bishop  wrote  to  Mr. 
Gladstone :  '  Supporting  what  is  counter  to  you  gives  me  a 
pang  I  cannot  describe.  Against  you,  in  the  long  run,  I 
do  not  believe  it  will  be.  Anything  which  breaks  up,  or 
tends  to  break  up,  Palmerston's  supremacy  must  bring 
you  nearer  to  the  post  in  which  I  long  to  see  you,  and,  if 
I  live,  shall  see  you.'  On  December  7,  1864,  he  wrote: 
'  Palmerston  seems  stronger  than  ever !    Gladstone,  I  think, 


LORD   PALMERSTON  1 59 

is  certainly  gaining  power.  You  hear  now  almost  every- 
one say  he  must  be  the  future  Premier,  and  such  sayings 
tend  greatly  to  accomplish  themselves.'  On  February  7, 
1865,  he  writes  :  'What  Gladstone  is  to  head  is  all  uncer- 
tain. Walpole  still  thinks  that,  having  gone  a  certain  way 
with  the  Radicals,  he  will  on  some  Church  measure  wheel 
round  and  break  wholly  with  them.  ...  I  do  not  believe 
Pam  thinks  of  retiring ;  he  means,  I  believe,  to  dissolve  as 
soon  as  the  Estimates  are  voted  in  the  summer.'  But  on 
July  2  :  '  Old  Palmerston  is  breaking,  and  I  think  it  very 
doubtful  if  he  can  meet  another  Parliament.' 

These  extracts  speak  for  themselves.  Lord  Palmerston 
was  in  high  favour  with  the  easy-going  and  the  well-to-do. 
An  aristocrat  by  birth  and  association,  he  was  the  ideal 
politician  of  the  middle  classes.  But  his  supporters  were 
confined  to  no  one  social  section.  Everyone  who  pre- 
ferred banter  to  argument,  and  who  found  lazy  swimming 
with  the  stream  more  congenial  than  a  bold  stand  for  prin- 
ciple, delighted  in  the  octogenarian  worldling.  They  ad- 
mired and  liked  a  man  who  mocked  at  enthusiasm  and 
despised  earnestness ;  who  hectored  and  bullied  on  the 
continental  stage,  and  ruthlessly  though  jocosely  burked 
-all  efforts  for  reform  at  home.  No  one  who  was  in  ear- 
nest, whatever  his  convictions,  could  make  terms  with  Lord 
Palmerston.  It  is  easy  to  guess  the  amount  of  sympathy 
which  existed  between  him  and  Mr.  Gladstone,  with  whom 
every  opinion  was  a  belief,  and  every  feeling  a  passion ; 
who,  from  boyhood  to  old  age,  could  never  take  anything 
lightly ;  and  who  regarded  a  jest  on  a  serious  subject  as 
flat  blasphemy.  Indeed,  some  hint  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  sen- 
timents towards  his  chief  may  be  gleaned  from  his  con- 
versations with  Bishop  Wilberforce.     Lord  Palmerston,  on 


l60  MR.  GLADSTONE 

his  part,  was  not  slow  to  reciprocate  these  compliments. 
Lord  Shaftesbury  writes :  '  Palmerston  had  but  two  real 
enemies,  Bright  and  Gladstone.  .  .  .  Palmerston  knew  all 
this,  but  never  mentioned  it  with  asperity.  Once  he  said 
to  me,  though  he  seldom  dealt  in  predictions,  "  Gladstone 
will  soon  have  it  all  his  own  way ;  and,  whenever  he  gets 
my  place,  we  shall  have  str.'-nge  doings."  He  feared  his 
character,  his  views,  and  his  temperament  greatly.  He 
rarely  spoke  severely  of  anyone.  Bright  and  Gladstone 
were  the  only  two  of  whom  he  used  strong  language.  He 
saw  clearly,  but  without  any  strong  sentiment,  Gladstone's 
hostility.  He  remarked  to  me  one  day,  when  we  were  dis- 
cussing some  appointments,  "Well,  Gladstone  has  never 
behaved  to  me,  as  a  colleague,  in  such  a  way  as  to  demand 
from  me  any  consideration."  And  this  he  said  with  the 
air  and  tone  of  a  man  who  perceived  the  enmity  but  did 
not  care  for  it.' 

The  two  men  were  by  temperament  incompatible.  And 
the  incompatibility  which  nature  had  begun,  every  circum- 
stance of  training  and  life  had  intensified.  The  marvel  is, 
not  that  they  had  scant  sympathy  with  one  another,  but 
that  they  should  have  worked  together  and  preserved  the 
outward  semblance  of  harmony  so  long  as  (in  spite  of  Mr. 
Gladstone's  frequent  threats  of  resignation)  they  contrived 
to  do. 

But  the  very  qualities  which  made  Mr.  Gladstone  un- 
congenial to  Lord  Palmerston,  and  to  the  whole  Palmer- 
stonian  school,  endeared  him  to  the  more  advanced  section 
of  the  Liberal  party.  He  himself  once  defined  a  Radical 
as  a  Liberal  in  earnest,  and  his  earnestness  made  him  the 
idol  of  the  Radicals.  His  high  aspirations,  his  earnest 
faith,  his  constantly  widening  sympathy  with  progress  and 


THE   WORKIXG-MAN   AND   THE   VOTE.  l6l 

freedom,  and  his  steady  recognition  of  the  moral  element 
in  politics,  won  to  his  side  thousands  of  electors  to  whom 
his  constitutional  lore  was  an  antiquarian  curiosity,  and 
his  theology  an  irritating  and  dangerous  delusion.  Growth 
has  always  been  the  most  marked  characteristic  of  Mr. 
Gladstone's  intelligence,  and  his  growth  during  these  quiet 
years  of  waiting  and  preparation  was  not  the  less  rapid,  al- 
though it  was  in  some  sense  out  of  sight  and  underground. 
In  two  significant  instances  it  was  permitted  to  show  itself, 
and  each  of  these  instances  contained  the  germ  of  great 
events. 

On  May  ii,  1864,  a  private  member  submitted  to  the 
House  of  Commons  a  bill  for  reducing  the  parliamentary 
franchise  in  boroughs  from  10/.  rental  to  6/.  The  Bill,  of 
course,  was  lost,  but  the  debate  was  rendered  memorable 
by  Mr.  Gladstone's  speech.  Two  years  before,  in  private 
conversation,  he  had  declared  himself  strongly  in  favour  of 
an  extension  of  the  franchise.  He  now  supported  the  pro- 
posed reduction.  He  declared  that  the  burden  of  proof 
rested  upon  those  'who  would  exclude  forty-nine  fiftieths 
of  the  working  classes  from  the  franchise.  It  is  for  them 
to  show  the  unworthiness,  the  incapacity,  and  the  miscon- 
duct of  the  working  class.'  '  I  say,'  he  repeated, '  that  every 
man  who  is  not  presumably  incapacitated  by  some  consid- 
eration of  personal  unfitness  or  political  danger  is  morally 
entitled  to  come  within  the  pale  of  the  Constitution.* 

We  are  told  (he  continued)  that  the  working  classes  don't 
agitate;  but  is  it  desirable  that  we  should  wait  until  they  do 
agitate  .''  In  my  opinion,  agitation  by  the  working  classes  upon 
any  political  subject  whatever  is  a  thing  not  to  be  waited  for, 
not  to  be  made  a  condition  previous  to  any  parliamentary 
movement,  but,  on  the  contrary  is  to  be  deprecated,  and,  if 


1 62  MR.  GLADSTONE 

possible,  prevented  by  wise  and  provident  measures.  An  agi- 
tation by  the  working  classes  is  not  like  an  agitation  by  the 
classes  above  them  having  leisure.  The  agitation  of  the 
classes  having  leisure  is  easily  conducted.  Every  hour  of 
their  time  has  not  a  money  value ;  their  wives  and  children 
are  not  dependent  on  the  application  of  those  hours  of  labour. 
When  a  working  man  finds  himself  in  such  a  condition  that 
he  must  abandon  that  daily  labour  on  which  he  is  strictly  de- 
pendent for  his  daily  bread,  it  is  only  because  then,  in  railway 
language,  the  danger-signal  is  turned  on,  and  because  he  feels 
a  strong  necessity  for  action,  and  a  distrust  of  the  rulers  who 
have  driven  him  to  that  necessity.  The  present  state  of  things, 
I  rejoice  to  say,  does  not  indicate  that  distrust ;  but  if  we  ad- 
mit that,  we  must  not  allege  the  absence  of  agitation  on  the 
part  of  the  working  classes  as  a  reason  why  the  Parliament  of 
England  and  the  public  mind  of  England  should  be  indisposed 
to  entertain  the  discussion  of  this  question. 

Protesting  against  the  '  inarticulate  reasoning '  of  Tories, 
who,  after  their  manner,  expressed  their  dissent  in  groans, 
he  went  on  to  say  that '  fitness  for  the  franchise,  when  it  is 
shown  to  exist,  is  not  repelled  on  sufificient  grounds  from 
the  portals  of  the  Constitution  by  the  allegation  that  things 
are  well  as  they  are.'  Self-command,  self-control,  respect 
for  order,  patience  under  suffering,  confidence  in  the  law, 
regard  for  superiors — these  were  the  qualifications  for  citi- 
zenship, and  they  had  been  signally  displayed  by  the  work- 
ing men  of  England  in  the  trying  winter  of  1862.  As  to 
their  practical  fitness  for  public  work,  he  cited  the  success 
of  the  co-operative  movement  which  had  emanated  from 
Rochdale,  and  argued  that  men  so  eminently  qualified  to 
manage  their  own  affairs  had  intelligence  sufficient  to  guide 
them  in  the  use  of  a  vote.  No  wonder  that  this  generous 
declaration  was  received  with  dismay  by  Tories  and  reac- 
tionary Liberals,  nor  that  an  Irish  lawyer,  who  followed 


1 


THE   IRISH    CHURCH  1 63 

Mr.  Gladstone  in  the  debate,  deplored  the  absence  of  Lord 
Palmerston,  who,  he  thought,  would  have  given  '  an  un- 
answerable reply  to  his  refractory  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer.' 

In  March,  1865,  Mr.  Dillwyn,  then,  as  now,  the  Radical 
member  for  Swansea,  moved  'that  the  present  position  of 
the  Irish  Church  Establishment  is  unsatisfactory,  and  calls 
for  the  early  attention  of  her  Majesty's  Government.'  No 
one  who  has  carefully  read  the  earlier  pages  of  this  memoir 
can  be  surprised  at  what  then  occurred.  The  Government, 
of  course,  could  not  accept  the  resolution,  but  the  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  stated  that  they  were  not  prepared 
to  deny  the  abstract  truth  of  the  former  part  of  it.  They 
could  not  assert  that  the  present  position  of  the  Establish- 
ment was  satisfactory.  The  Irish  Church,  as  she  then 
stood,  was  in  a  false  position.  She  ministered  only  to  one- 
eighth  or  one-ninth  of  the  whole  community.  It  was  much 
more  difficult,  however,  to  decide  upon  the  practical  aspect 
of  the  question,  and  no  one  had  ventured  to  propose  the 
remedy  required  for  the  existing  condition.  Consequently, 
'  we  feel  that  we  ought  to  decline  to  follow  the  hon.  gentle- 
man into  the  lobby  and  declare  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
Government  to  give  their  early  attention  to  the  subject ; 
because  if  we  gave  a  vote  to  that  effect  we  should  be  com- 
mitting one  of  the  gravest  offences  of  which  a  Government 
could  be  guilty — namely,  giving  a  deliberate  and  solemn 
promise  to  the  country,  which  promise  it  would  be  out  of 
our  power  to  fulfil.'  The  debate  was  adjourned,  and  was 
not  resumed  during  the  Session,  but  the  speech  of  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  caused  great  excitement. 
Mr.  (afterwards  Chief  Justice)  Whiteside  promptly  de- 
nounced it   as  intended  to  be  fatal  to  the   Established 


]64  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Church  of  Ireland  when  an  opportunity  should  arise.     Sir 
Stafford  Northcote  wrote  on  March  29 : 

Gladstone  made  a  terribly  long  stride  in  his  downward 
progress  last  night,  and  denounced  the  Irish  Church  in  a  way 
which  shows  how,  by  and  by,  he  will  deal  not  only  with  it,  but 
with  the  Church  of  England  too  .  .  .  was  evidently  annoyed 
that  his  colleagues  had  decided  on  opposing  Dillwyn's  mo- 
tion. He  laid  down  the  doctrines  that  the  tithe  was  national 
property,  and  ought  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  State  in  the  man- 
ner most  advantageous  to  the  people ;  and  that  the  Church 
of  England  was  only  national  because  the  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple still  belonged  to  her. ...  It  is  plain  that  he  must  hold  that 
the  tithe  of  Wales,  where  the  Dissenters  are  in  a  majority, 
does  not  properly  belong  to  the  Church ;  and  by  and  by  we 
shall  find  that  he  will  carrj'  the  principle  a  great  deal  further. 
It  is  sad  to  see  what  he  is  coming  to. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  opponents  in  the  University  of  Oxford 
printed  his  speech,  and  circulated  it,  to  his  prejudice, 
among  his  constituents.  One  of  these,  Dr.  Hannah, 
Warden  of  Trinity  College,  Glenalmond,  wrote  to  Mr. 
Gladstone  for  an  explanation,  and  received  the  following 
reply,  dated  June  8,  1865  : 

My  reasons  are,  I  think,  plain.  First,  because  the  question 
is  remote,  and  apparently  out  of  all  bearing  on  the  practical 
politics  of  the  day,  I  think  it  would  be  for  me  worse  than  su- 
perfluous to  determine  upon  any  scheme,  or  basis  of  a  scheme, 
with  respect  to  it.  Secondly,  because  it  is  difficult ;  even  if 
I  anticipated  any  likelihood  of  being  called  upon  to  deal  with 
it,  I  should  think  it  right  to  take  no  decision  beforehand  on 
the  mode  of  dealing  with  the  difficulties.  But  the  first  reason 
is  that  which  chiefly  weighs.  As  far  as  I  know,  my  speech 
signifies  pretty  clearly  the  broad  distinction  which  I  make 
between  the  abstract  and  the  practical  views  of  the  subject, 
and  I  think  I  have  stated  strongly  my  sense  of  the  responsi- 
bility attaching  to  the  opening  of  such  a  question,  except  in 


THE   GENERAL   ELECTION,    1 865  1 65 

a  state  of  things  which  gave  promise  of  satisfactorily  closing 
it.  For  this  reason  it  is  that  I  have  been  so  silent  about  the 
matter,  and  may  probably  be  so  again ;  but  I  could  not,  as  a 
Minister  and  as  member  for  Oxford  University,  allow  it  to  be 
debated  an  indefinite  number  of  times  and  remain  silent.  One 
thing,  however,  I  may  add,  because  I  think  it  a  clear  land- 
mark. In  any  measure  dealing  with  the  Irish  Church,  I  think 
(though  I  scarcely  expect  ever  to  be  called  on  to  share  in  such 
a  measure)  the  Act  of  Union  must  be  recognized,  and  must 
have  important  consequences,  especially  with  reference  to  the 
position  of  the  hierarchy.  I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for 
writing,  and  I  hope  you  will  see  and  approve  my  reasons  for 
not  wishing  to  carry  my  own  inind  further  into  a  question 
lying  at  a  distance  I  cannot  measure. 

In  this  year  Mr.  Gladstone's  term  of  ofBce  as  Lord 
Rector  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh  expired,  and  he 
took  leave  of  the  University  in  an  admirable  and  interest- 
ing discourse  on  the  place  of  Ancient  Greece  in  the  Prov- 
idential Order. 

The  general  election  was  now  near  at  hand.  There 
was  no  burning  question,  no  cry,  nothing  to  'go  to  the 
country  on.'  But  then,  again,  on  the  other  hand,  there 
was  the  less  demand  for  these  commodities,  because  the 
Government  was  not  seriously  threatened.  In  spite  of  the 
murmurs  of  high-flying  Tories  and  the  fierce  disappoint- 
ment of  bafifled  reformers,  the  mass  of  the  country  seemed 
pretty  well  satisfied  with  Lord  Palmerston  and  his  Admin- 
istration. This  satisfaction  arose,  in  great  part,  from  the 
flourishing  condition  in  which  the  finances  of  the  country 
had  been  established  by  the  colleague  whom  Lord  Palmer- 
ston so  much  disliked  and  dreaded. 

The  election  now  impending  was  charged  with  great 
consequences  to  Mr.  Gladstone's  career.  His  seat  at  Ox- 
ford was  seriously  imperilled.     The  further  he  had  gone 


l66  MR.  GLADSTONE 

from  Toryism,  and  the  more  nearly  he  had  approached, 
through  association  with  Whiggery  (for  he  never  was  a 
Whig  himself)  to  Liberalism,  and  even  Radicalism,  the 
more  he  had  weakened  his  hold  upon  the  constituency. 
He  had,  indeed,  a  numerous  and  powerful  following  of  de- 
voted friends,  but  the  average  elector  of  the  University 
viewed  him  with  increasing  suspicion.  We  saw  how  his 
attitude  towards  national  education  involved  him  in  a  con- 
test in  1853.  In  1855  Bishop  Wilberforce  writes:  'A  great 
deal  of  talk  with  Gladstone  about  his  seat.  He  disposed 
to  relinquish  it,  and  on  noble  grounds — that  the  Univer- 
sity would  get  a  better  representative  if  they  had  a  free 
choice  than  if  merely  brought  in  by  the  bigotry  party  in 
opposition  to  him.'  In  i860  Mr.  Gladstone  writes:  'With- 
out having  to  complain,  I  am  entirely  sick  and  weary  of 
the  terms  upon  which  I  hold  the  seat.'  In  1861  the  fol- 
lowing correspondence  passed  between  him  and  two  of  his 
chief  supporters  at  Oxford  : 

The  Bishop  of  Oxford  io  the  Right  Hon.  IV.  E.  Gladstone. 

Cuddesdon  Palace,  April  8,  1861. 
My  dear  Gladstone,  —  I  have  seen  to-day  the  Rector  of 
Exeter,  and  he  asked  me  to  say  to  you  that,  though  he  has 
sent  you  the  petition  against  paper-voting  to  present,  he  does 
not  wish  you  to  say  a  word  upon  it,  being  more  and  more 
persuaded  that  any  opposition  to  the  Bill  from  you  would 
injure  you  greatly,  and  caring  more  for  keeping  your  seat  and 
throwing  out  the  Bill ;  so  far  the  Rector.  As  I  know  not 
your  mind,  nor  whether  you  wish  for  opinions,  I  give  none  on 
the  great  question  of  your  seat.  Only  let  me  say:  i.  That  if 
I  can  be  of  any  use,  you  know  how  freely  you  may  command 
me  ;  2.  That  I  can  hardly  bear  the  thought  of  the  degradation 
to  us  of  your  ceasing  to  be  our  Member. — I  am,  ever  very  af- 
fectionately yours, 

S.  OXON. 


OXFORD   OR   LANCASHIRE?  167 

The  Right  Hon.  IV.  E.  Gladstone  to  the  Bishop  of  Oxford. 
II  Downing  Street,  July  11,  1861. 
On  the  question  of  the  seat,  obliged  as  I  am  to  write  in 
haste,  I  cannot  do  better  than  send  you  a  copy  of  a  letter 
which  I  have  just  addressed  to  the  Rector  o[  Exeter. 

To-morrow  Palmer's  prospects  are  to  be  considered.  I 
think,  so  far  as  my  personal  feelings  are  concerned,  that  they 
may  not  be  good  enough  to  justify  my  taking  the  South  Lan- 
cashire seat. 

T/ie  RigJit  Hon.  IV.  E.  Gladstone  to  tJie  Rector  of 
Exeter  College. 

II  Downing  Street,  July  11,  1861. 

My  dear  Rector  of  Exeter, — If  I  have  apparently  neglected 
to  answer  your  most  kind  letters,  it  has  been  from  great  anx- 
iety to  advance  to  a  stage,  before  replying,  at  which  my  reply 
might  be  worth  your  having. 

I  have  never  forgotten  the  ties  which  bind  me  to  my  kind 
and  generous  supporters  in  the  University,  and  no  prospect 
elsewhere  could  induce  me  to  quit  them,  unless  I  could  think 
that  at  a  juncture  like  this  they  might,  with  every  prospect 
of  success,  support  a  candidate  who  would  fill  my  place  to 
their  full  and  general  satisfaction.  Recent  events  have  made 
it  requisite  to  consider  carefully  Mr.  Palmer's  position.  He 
writes  to  his  brother  by  this  post  on  the  subject,  and  we  are 
both  alike  sensible  that  no  time  is  to  be  lost. 

I  make  no  great  demand  on  your  power  of  belief  when  I 
assure  you  that  it  has  not  been  any  selfish  motive  which  in- 
duced me  to  open,  in  the  second  year  of  Parliament,  or  rather 
to  allow  to  be  opened,  the  idea  of  my  quitting  the  seat  to 
which  I  have  been  elected.  It  will  be  very  pleasant  to  me 
should  the  balance  of  public  considerations,  when  we  have 
ascertained  it  (I  trust  to-morrow  or  next  day)  to  the  best  of 
our  power,  admit  of  my  retaining  my  position.  To  quit  Ox- 
ford under  any  circumstances  would  be  a  most  sad,  even  if  it 
ever  become  a  prudent,  and  even  a  necessar}^  measure. — Be- 
lieve me,  with  great  regard,  sincerely  yours, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 


1 68  MR.  GLADSTONE 

And  so  matters  went  on,  Mr.  Gladstone  feeling  that 
every  year  relaxed  his  hold  upon  the  University,  but  still 
shrinking  with  natural  reluctance  from  the  severance  of  a 
bond  which  had  brought  in  its  time  so  much  honour  and 
so  much  happiness.  Two  important  steps  in  the  conflict 
were  these.  In  1864  a  strong  committee  induced  Mr. 
Gathorne  Hardy,  now  Lord  Cranbrook,  and  then  member 
for  Leominster,  to  consent  to  contest  the  seat  with  Mr. 
Gladstone  at  the  next  election ;  and  an  Act  was  passed 
which,  by  establishing  the  system  of  voting-papers,  enabled 
all  the  country  clergymen  and  non-resident  M.  A.'s  to  swamp 
the  votes  of  the  resident  and  effective  members  of  the 
University.  The  determination  of  the  High  Tory  party  to 
defeat  Mr.  Gladstone  at  any  cost  was  widely  deplored,  not 
only  or  chiefly  by  Liberals,  but  by  all  believers  in  orderly 
and  regulated  progress.  Radicals  rejoiced  in  the  prospect 
that  their  favourite  politician  would  soon  be  unshackled  by 
academic  and  ecclesiastical  obligations :  but  Bishop  Wil- 
berforce,  in  spite  of  his  hatred  of  the  Whig  Government, 
used  his  strongest  endeavours  to  save  Mr.  Gladstone's  seat, 
and  Lord  Palmerston  said,  with  friendly  frankness,  '  He  is 
a  dangerous  man.  Keep  him  in  Oxford,  and  he  is  partially 
muzzled ;  but  send  him  elsewhere,  and  he  will  run  wild.' 

Parliament  was  dissolved  on  July  6.  When  the  voting 
at  Oxford  closed,  Mr.  Gladstone  was  at  the  bottom  of  the 
poll.     On  July  18,  he  issued  his  valedictory  address : 

After  an  arduous  connexion  of  eighteen  years,  I  bid  you, 
respectfully,  farewell.  My  earnest  purpose  to  serve  you,  my 
many  faults  and  shortcomings,  the  incidents  of  the  political 
relation  between  the  University  and  myself,  established  in 
1847,  so  often  questioned  in  vain,  and  now,  at  length,  finally 
dissolved,  I  leave  to  the  judgment  of  the  future.  It  is  one 
imperative  duty,  and  one  alone,  which  induces  me  to  trouble 


'TOO   GREAT   FOR  THEM'  169 

you  with  these  few  parting  words — the  duty  of  expressing  my 
profound  and  lasting  gratitude  for  indulgence  as  generous, 
and  for  support  as  warm  and  enthusiastic  in  itself,  and  as 
honourable  from  the  character  and  distinctions  of  those  who 
have  given  it,  as  has,  in  my  belief,  ever  been  accorded  by  any 
constituency  to  any  representative. 

In  the  following  correspondence,  it  is  touching  to  ob- 
serve the  sharp  sense  of  unworthy  and  ungenerous  treat- 
ment at  the  hands  of  a  body  whose  highest  interests  he 
had  manfully  defended,  struggling  with  the  proud  humility 
which  shrinks  from  a  public  exhibition  of  its  open  wounds  : 

The  Bishop  of  Oxford  to  the  Right  Hon.  IV.  E.  Gladstone. 
Glenthorne,  I>ynmouth,  July  18,  1865. 
My  dear  Gladstone, — I  have  just  received  the  account  of 
the  numbers  polled  at  Oxford  up  to  last  night,  and  I  cannot 
forbear  expressing  to  you  my  grief  and  indignation  at  the  re- 
sult. It  is  needless  for  me  to  say  that  eveiything  I  could  with 
propriety  do  I  did  heartily  to  save  our  University  this  great 
loss  and  dishonour,  as  well  from  a  loving  honour  of  you.  But 
the  truth  is  that,  except  on  the  footing  which  Sir  R.  Peel's 
last  contest  destroyed,  the  University  of  Oxford  is  about  the 
worst  constituency  existing  for  a  man  before  his  age  in  intel- 
lectual development  and  above  it  in  self-respect.  Of  course, 
if  half  of  these  men  had  known  what  I  know  of  your  real 
devotion  to  our  Church,  that  would  have  outweighed  their 
hatred  of  a  Government  which  gave  Waldegrave  to  Carlisle, 
and  Baring  to  Durham,  and  the  youngest  Bishop  on  the 
Bench  to  York,  and  supported  Westbury  in  seeking  to  deny 
for  England  the  faith  of  our  Lord.  But  they  could  not  be 
made  to  understand  the  truth,  and  have  inflicted  on  the  Uni- 
versity and  the  Church  the  gross  indignity  of  rejecting  the 
best,  noblest,  and  truest  son  of  each,  in  order  to  punish  Shaftes- 
bury and  Westbury.  You  were  too  great  for  them. —  In  all 
heartiest  affection  and  honour,  I  am,  my  dear  Gladstone,  most 
truly  yours,  S.  OxON. 


170  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Hawarden,  July  2i,  1865. 

My  dear  Bishop  of  Oxford, — Your  letter  comes  amid  many 
and  most  kind  ones,  but  I  am  deeply  sensible  of  its  overflow- 
ing kindness.  I  do  not  doubt  this  to  me  great  event  is  all  for 
good,  and  the  consolations  of  cordial  support,  indulgent  judg- 
ment and  warm  affection  are  given  me  in  abundance — in  more 
than  abundance  by  you. 

Do  not  conceal  from  yourself  that  my  hands  are  much 
weakened  :  it  was  only  as  representing  Oxford  that  a  man 
whose  opinions  are  disliked  and  suspected  could  expect  or 
could  have  a  title  to  be  heard.  I  look  upon  myself  now  as  a 
person  wholly  extraneous  on  one  great  class  of  questions : 
with  respect  to  legislative  and  Cabinet  matters  I  am  still  a 
unit.  But  as  far  as  my  will,  my  time,  my  thoughts  are  con- 
cerned, they  are  where  they  ever  were. 

I  have  had  too  much  of  personal  collision  with  Lord  West- 
bury  to  be  a  fair  judge  in  his  case,  but,  in  your  condemnation 
of  him,  as  respects  attacks  upon  Christian  doctrine,  do  not 
forget  either  what  coadjutors  he  has  had,  or  with  what  pain- 
ful or  lamentable  indifYerence  not  only  the  public,  but  so 
many  of  the  clergy,  so  many  of  the  warmest  religionists, 
looked  on. 

Do  not  join  with  others  in  praising  me,  because  I  am  not 
angry,  only  sorry,  and  that  deeply.  For  my  revenge — which 
I  do  not  desire,  but  would  baffle  if  I  could — all  lies  in  that 
little  word  'Future'  in  my  address,  which  I  wrote  with  a 
consciousness  that  it  is  deeply  charged  with  meaning,  and 
that  that  which  shall  come  will  come. 

There  have  been  two  great  deaths,  or  transmigrations  of 
spirit,  in  my  political  existence — one,  very  slow,  the  breaking 
of  ties  with  my  original  party;  the  other,  very  short  and 
sharp,  the  breaking  of  the  tie  with  Oxford. 

There  will  probably  be  a  third,  and  no  more. 

Again,  my  dear  Bishop,  I  thank  you  for  bearing  with  my 
waywardness,  and  manifesting,  in  the  day  of  need,  your  con- 
fidence and  attachment. — Ever  affectionately  yours, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 


AN  ORACULAR   SENTENCE  171 

July  24,  1865. 

My  dear  Gladstone, — I  thank  you  very  specially  for  your 
kind  language  to  me. 

There  is  one  expression  of  yours  which  I  wish  I  were  quite 
sure  I  understood  aright — 'there  will  probably  be  a  third,  and 
no  more.'  And  now  will  you  let  me  once  more  say  that  your 
present  position  seems  to  me  energetically  to  require  you  to 
take  (when  the  occasion  comes)  the  step  which  Canning  took 
when  he  claimed  the  Premiership  ?  I  put  aside  Church  con- 
siderations, because  they  are  so  obvious  that  they  need  no 
statement.  But,  politically,  for  yourself — and  that  is,  I  be- 
lieve, the  same  thing  as  for  our  country — this  seems  to  me  a 
paramount  necessity  :  your  charge  is  what  Pitt's  was — it  is  to 
make  England  wealthy;  to  diffuse  that  wealth  specially  among 
the  working  classes ;  to  enlarge  and  to  purify  our  institutions. 
In  doing  this,  if  you  early  put  yourself  at  the  head  of  a  Gov- 
ernment and  disclose  your  views,  you  may  command  an  im- 
mense support  from  all  real  patriots  on  all  sides,  and  you  will 
be  true  to  yourself,  to  your  earliest  and  to  your  present  noble 
self.  You  are  not  a  Radical,  and  yet  you  may  by  political  ex- 
igencies, if  you  submit  to  be  second,  be  led  in  heading  a  Rad- 
ical party  until  its  fully-developed  aims  assault  all  that  you 
most  value  in  our  country,  and  it  (the  Radical  party)  turns 
upon  you  and  rends  you.  You  have  never  had  fair  play,  or 
you  would  now  have  a  vast  ostensible  following.  All  the 
opposition  you  wouM  have  to  meet  would  be  at  first  if  you 
took  your  proper  place. 

Pardon  me  for  venturing  on  all  this;  your  loving  kindness 
is  answerable  for  it. — I  am,  my  dear  Gladstone,  very  affection- 
ately yours, 

S.  OXON. 

Osborne,  July  28,  1865. 

My  dear  Bishop  of  Oxford, — The  oracular  sentence  has 
little  bearing  on  present  affairs  or  prospects,  and  may  stand 
in  its  proper  darkness.  But  the  hortatory  part  of  your  letter, 
coming,  as  it  does,  from  you,  with  such  sincerity,  such  author- 
ity, and  such  affection,  I  must  not  pass  unnoticed.     I  think 


172  MR.  GLADSTONE 

if  you  had  the  same  means  of  estimating  my  position,  jointly 
with  my  faculties,  as  I  have,  you  would  be  of  a  different  opin- 
ion. It  is  my  fixed  determination  never  to  take  any  step 
whatever  to  raise  myself  to  a  higher  level  in  official  life  ;  and 
this  not  on  grounds  of  Christian  self-denial,  which  would 
hardly  apply,  but  on  the  double  ground,  first,  of  my  total  ig- 
norance of  my  capacity,  bodily  or  mental,  to  hold  such  a  higher 
level ;  and,  secondly — perhaps  I  might  say  especially — because 
I  am  certain  that  the  fact  of  my  seeking  it  would  seal  my 
doom  in  taking  it.  This  is  a  reason  of  a  very  practical  kind  : 
every  day  brings  me  fresh  evidence  of  its  force  and  soundness. 
— Ever  affectionately  yours, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 

Dr.  Pusey  wrote  thus  to  a  triumphant  Tory : 

You  are  naturally  rejoicing  over  the  rejection  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, which  I  mourn.  Some  of  those  who  concurred  in  that 
election,  or  who  stood  aloof,  will,  I  fear,  mourn  hereafter  with 
a  double  sorrow  because  they  were  the  cause  of  that  rejection. 
I,  of  course,  speak  only  for  myself,  with  whatever  degree  of 
anticipation  may  be  the  privilege  of  years.  Yet,  on  the  very 
ground  that  I  may  very  probably  not  live  to  see  the  issue  of 
the  momentous  future  now  hanging  over  the  Church,  let  me, 
through  you,  express  to  those  friends  from  whom  I  have  been 
separated,  who  love  the  Church  in  itself,  and  not  the  accident 
of  Establishment,  my  conviction  that  we  should  do  ill  to  iden- 
tify the  interests  of  the  Church  with  any  political  party ;  that 
we  have  questions  before  us,  compared  with  which  that  of  the 
Establishment  (important  as  it  is  in  respect  to  the  possession 
of  our  parish  churches)  is  as  nothing.  The  grounds  alleged 
against  Mr.  Gladstone  bore  at  the  utmost  upon  the  Establish- 
ment. The  Establishment  might  perish,  and  the  Church  but 
come  forth  the  purer.  If  the  Church  were  corrupted,  the 
Establishment  would  become  a  curse  in  proportion  to  its  in- 
fluence. As  that  conflict  will  thicken,  Oxford,  I  think,  will 
learn  to  regret  her  rude  severance  from  one  so  loyal  to  the 
Church,  to  the  faith,  and  to  God. 


'unmuzzled'  173 

Shaking  off  the  dust  of  Oxford  from  his  feet,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone now  turned  his  face  towards  South  Lancashire.  He 
appeared  there,  as  he  said,  '  unmuzzled.' 

Speaking  in  the  Free  Trade  Hall  at  Manchester,  he  said: 

After  an  anxious  struggle  of  eighteen  years,  during  which 
the  unbounded  devotion  and  indulgence  of  my  friends  have 
maintained  me  in  the  arduous  position  of  representative  of 
the  University  of  Oxford,  I  have  been  driven  from  that  posi- 
tion. .  .  .  But  do  not  let  me  come  among  you  under  false  col- 
ours or  with  false  pretences.  I  have  loved  the  University  of 
Oxford  with  a  deep  and  passionate  love,  and  as  long  as  I  live 
that  attachment  will  continue.  If  my  affection  is  of  the  small- 
est advantage  to  that  great,  that  ancient,  that  noble  institu- 
tion, that  advantage — such  as  it  is,  and  it  is  most  insignificant 
— Oxford  will  possess  as  long  as  I  breathe.  But  don't  mistake 
the  issue  which  has  been  raised.  The  University  has  at  length, 
after  eighteen  years  of  self-denial,  been  drawn  by  what  I  might, 
perhaps,  call  the  overweening  exercise  of  power,  into  the 
vortex  of  mere  party  politics.  Well,  you  will  readily  under- 
stand why,  as  long  as  I  had  a  hope  that  the  zeal  and  kindness 
of  my  friends  might  keep  me  in  my  place,  it  was  impossible 
for  me  to  abandon  them.  Could  they  have  returned  me  by  but 
a  majority  of  one,  painful  as  it  is  to  a  man  at  my  time  of  life, 
and  feeling  the  weight  of  public  cares,  to  be  incessantly  strug- 
gling for  his  seat,  nothing  could  have  induced  me  to  quit  that 
University  to  which  I  had  so  long  ago  devoted  my  best  care 
and  attachment.  But  by  no  act  of  mine  I  am  free  to  come 
among  you.  And  having  been  thus  set  free,  I  need  hardly 
tell  you  that  it  is  with  joy,  with  thankfulness,  and  enthusiasm, 
that  I  now,  at  this  eleventh  hour,  a  candidate  without  an  ad- 
dress, make  my  appeal  to  the  heart  and  the  mind  of  South 
Lancashire,  and  ask  you  to  pronounce  upon  that  appeal.  As 
I  have  said,  I  am  aware  of  no  cause  for  the  votes  which  have 
been  given  in  considerable  majority  against  me  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford,  except  the  fact  that  the  strongest  conviction 
that  the  human  mind  can  receive,  that  an  overpowering  sense 


174  MR.  GLADSTONE 

of  the  public  interests,  that  the  practical  teachings  of  experi- 
ence, to  which  from  my  first  youth  Oxford  herself  taught  me  to 
lay  open  my  mind — all  these  have  shown  me  the  folly — I  will 
say  the  madness — of  refusing  to  join  in  the  generous  sympa- 
thies of  my  countrymen,  by  adopting  what  I  must  call  an  ob- 
structive policy. 

Without  entering  into  details,  without  unrolling  the  long 
record  of  all  the  great  measures  that  have  been  passed — the 
emancipation  of  Roman  Catholics  ;  the  removal  of  tests  from 
Dissenters  ;  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  ;  the  reformation 
of  the  Poor  Law  ;  the  reformation — I  had  almost  said  the  de- 
struction, but  it  is  the  reformation — of  the  Tariff ;  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  Corn  Laws  ;  the  abolition  of  the  Navigation  Laws  ; 
the  conclusion  of  the  French  treaty;  the  laws  which  have 
relieved  Dissenters  from  stigma  and  almost  ignominy,  and 
which  in  doing  so  have  not  weakened,  but  have  strengthened, 
the  Church  to  which  I  belong — all  these  great  acts,  accom- 
plished with  the  same,  I  had  almost  said  sublime,  tranquillity 
of  the  whole  country  as  that  with  which  your  own  vast  ma- 
chinery performs  its  appointed  task,  as  it  were  in  perfect  re- 
pose— all  these  things  have  been  done.  You  have  seen  the  acts. 
You  have  seen  the  fruits.  It  is  natural  to  enquire  who  have 
been  the  doers.  In  a  very  humble  measure,  but  yet  according 
to  the  degree  and  capacity  of  the  powers  which  Providence 
has  bestowed  upon  me,  I  have  been  desirous  not  to  obstruct 
but  to  promote  and  assist  this  beneficent  and  blessed  process. 
And  if  I  entered  Parliament,  as  I  did  enter  Parliament,  with  a 
warm  and  anxious  desire  to  maintain  the  institutions  of  my 
countr}',  I  can  truly  say  that  there  is  no  period  of  my  life  dur- 
ing which  my  conscience  is  so  clear,  and  renders  me  so  good  an 
answer,  as  those  years  in  which  I  have  co-operated  in  the  pro- 
motion of  Liberal  measures. .  .  .  Because  they  are  Liberal,  they 
are  the  true  measures,  and  indicate  the  true  policy  by  which 
the  country  is  made  strong  and  its  institutions  preserved. 

Speaking  on  the  evening  of  the  same  day  in  the  Amphi- 
theatre at  Liverpool,  Mr.  Gladstone  said : 


PAST   AND    FUTURE  1 75 

During  eighteen  years  I  have  been  the  representative  of 
Oxford.  It  has  been  my  duty  in  her  name  to  deal  with  all  those 
questions  bearingupon  the  relations  of  Religion  and  Education 
to  the  State,  which  this  critical  period  has  brought  to  the  sur- 
face. Long  has  she  borne  with  me;  long,  in  spite  of  active 
opposition,  did  she  resist  every  effort  to  displace  me.  At  last 
she  has  changed  her  mind.  God  grant  it  may  be  well  with  her ; 
but  the  recollection  of  her  confidence  which  I  had  so  long 
enjoyed,  and  of  the  many  years  I  have  spent  in  her  service, 
never  can  depart  from  me  ;  and  if  now  I  appear  before  you  in 
a  different  position,  I  do  not  appear  as  another  man.  ...  If 
the  future  of  the  University  is  to  be  as  glorious  as  her  past,  the 
result  must  be  brought  about  by  enlarging  her  borders,  by 
opening  her  doors,  by  invigorating  her  powers,  by  endeavouring 
to  rise  to  the  heights  of  that  vocation  with  which,  I  believe,  it 
has  pleased  the  Almighty  to  endow  her.  I  see  represented  in 
that  ancient  institution  the  most  prominent  features  that  relate 
to  the  past  of  England.  I  come  into  South  Lancashire,  and 
find  here  around  me  an  assemblage  of  different  phenomena.  I 
find  the  development  of  industry.  I  find  the  growth  of  enter- 
prise. I  find  the  progress  of  social  philanthropy.  I  find  the 
prevalence  of  toleration.  I  find  an  ardent  desire  for  freedom. . . . 

If  there  be  one  duty  more  than  another  incumbent  upon  the 
public  men  of  England,  it  is  to  establish  and  maintain  harmony 
between  the  past  of  our  glorious  history  and  the  future  which  is 
still  in  store  for  her.  ...  I  am  if  possible  rpore  firmly  attached 
to  the  institutions  of  my  country  than  I  was  when,  a  boy,  I 
wandered  among  the  sand-hills  of  Seaforth.  But  experience 
has  brought  with  it  its  lessons.  I  have  learn-ed  that  there  is 
wisdom  in  a  policy  of  trust,  and  folly  in  a  policy  of  mistrust. 
I  have  observed  the  effect  which  has  been  produced-  by  Liberal 
legislation  ;  and  if  we  are  told  that  the  feeling  of  the  country 
is  in  the  best  and  broadest  sense  Conservative,  honesty  compels 
us  to  admit  that  that  result  has  been  brought  about  by  Liberal 
legislation. 

At  this  time  South  Lancashire  returned  three  members. 
There  were  six  candidates,  of  whom  Mr,  Gladstone  was 


176  MR.  GLADSTONE 

returned  in  the  third  place,  with  two  Tories  above  him. 
He  had  thus  secured  his  seat,  but  he  held  it  by  a  tenure 
which  was  alarmingly  insecure. 

The  result  of  the  general  election  was  favourable  to  the 
Government,  but  trouble  was  impending.  It  was  only  the 
restraining  and  controlling  influence  of  Lord  Palmerston's 
great  authority  which  kept  the  discordant  elements  of  the 
Liberal  party  in  even  the  outward  semblance  of  harmony. 
And  Lord  Palmerston  was  eighty  years  old,  and  in  failing 
health.  In  the  spring  of  1865  he  had  a  severe  attack  of 
gout,  from  which  he  rallied.  On  July  10,  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury wrote  : 

This  is  considered  a  calm.  But  it  is  in  reality  no  such  thing. 
It  is  simply  the  peg  driven  through  the  island  of  Deles;  un- 
loose the  peg,  and  all  will  be  adrift.  Palmerston  is  that  peg. 
Let  him  be  drawn  out  by  defeat,  by  sickness,  or  by  retirement, 
and  all  will  be  confusion.  Gladstone  and  the  Manchester  party 
will  ensure  that  issue. 

July  II. — In  fearful  anxiety  about  Palmerston.  He  is — the 
Lord  be  praised ! — better;  but  he  has  not  recovered,  nor  will  he 
ever  recover  at  eighty  years  of  age,  his  former  strength.  I 
have  long  thought  that  he  will  not  meet  another  Parliament, 
or,  if  he  does,  it  will  only  be  to  take  his  leave.  He  is  gone 
to  Tiverton  :  his  friends  declared  that  such  a  step,  however 
hazardous,  was  necessary  to  sustain  the  public  confidence. 
How  ardently  do  I  pray,  day  and  night,  that  he  may  return  in 
safety !     He  is  the  only  true  Englishman  left  in  public  life. 

The  old  campaigner  got  back  safe  from  Tiverton,  but 
he  had  fought  and  won  his  last  battle,  and  the  end  was  at 
hand.  Early  in  October  he  caught  a  chill,  from  over-exer- 
tion and  undue  exposure,  and  on  October  17  it  was  an- 
nounced to  the  public  that  he  had  been  ill,  but  was  better. 
The  next  day  he  died. 


LORD   PALMERSTON'S   DEATH  1 77 

The  fifth  Duke  of  Newcastle,  Secretary  for  War  in  the 
Coalition  Government,  had  died  in  the  preceding  year, 
leaving  his  life-long  friend  and  associate,  Mr.  Gladstone, 
one  of  the  trustees  of  his  son's  estate.  In  this  capacity, 
the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  applied  himself,  with 
characteristic  thoroughness,  to  the  duties  pertaining  to  the 
management  of  a  rural  property,  and  acquired,  in  the  super- 
vision of  the  woodlands  of  Clumber,  that  practical  knowl- 
edge of  woodcraft  which  has  afforded  him  such  constant 
interest  and  recreation.  This  new  charge  required  frequent 
visits  to  Clumber,  and  it  was  from  there  that,  on  October 
18,  he  addressed  the  following  letter  to  Lord  Russell : 

I  have  received  to-night  by  telegraph  the  appalling  news  of 
Lord  Palmerston's  decease.  None  of  us,  I  suppose,  were  pre- 
pared for  this  event  in  the  sense  of  having  communicated  as  to 
what  should  follow.  The  Queen  must  take  the  first  step,  but  I 
cannot  feel  uncertain  what  it  will  be.  Your  former  place  as 
her  Minister,  your  powers,  experience,  services,  and  renown, 
do  not  leave  room  for  doubt  that  you  will  be  sent  for.  Your 
hands  will  be  entirely  free.  You  are  pledged  probably  to  no 
one,  certainly  not  to  me.  But  any  Government  now  to  be 
formed  cannot  be  wholly  a  continuation  :  it  must  be  in  some 
degree  a  new  commencement.  I  am  sore  with  conflicts  about 
the  public  expenditure,  which  I  feel  that  other  men  would  either 
have  escaped  or  have  conducted  more  gently  and  less  fretfully. 
I  am  most  willing  to  retire.  On  the  other  hand,  I  am  bound 
by  conviction,  even  more  than  by  credit,  to  the  principle  of 
progressive  reduction  in  our  military  and  naval  establishments, 
and  in  the  charges  for  them,  under  the  favouring  circumstances 
which  we  appear  to  enjoy.  This  is,  I  think,  the  moment  to 
say  thus  much  on  a  subject-matter  which  greatly  appertains  to 
my  department.  On  the  general  field  of  politics,  having  known 
your  course  in  Cabinet  for  eight  and  a  half  years,  I  am  quite 
willing  to  take  my  chance  under  your  banner  in  the  exact 
capacity  I  now  fill,  and  I  adopt  the  step,  perhaps  a  little  un- 
12 


178  MR.  GLADSTONE 

usual,  of  saying  so,  because  it  may  be  convenient  to  you  at  a 
juncture  when  time  is  precious,  while  it  can  hardly,  I  trust,  after 
what  I  have  said  above,  be  hurtful. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  expectations  were  well  founded.  On 
October  19,  the  Queen  wrote  that  she  could  'turn  to  no 
other  than  Lord  Russell,  an  old  and  tried  friend  of  hers, 
to  undertake  the  arduous  duties  of  Prime  Minister,  and  to 
carry  on  the  Government.'  Mr.  Gladstone  resumed  office, 
as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  but  not  'in  the  exact 
capacity '  which  he  had  filled  before ;  for  he  now  became 
for  the  first  time  Leader  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

During  the  winter  he  found  time  to  compose  an  elab- 
orate and  appreciative  review  of  the  famous,  but  then  anon- 
ymous book,  in  which  Professor  Seeley  attempted  to  survey 
the  Life  and  Work  of  our  Lord.  In  this  essay,  in  which, 
to  quote  Dr.  Liddon,  'genius  and  orthodoxy  have  done 
their  best  for  the  Christian  honour  of  "  Ecce  Homo,"  '  Mr. 
Gladstone  drew  an  analogy  between  the  original  function 
of  the  Synoptic  Gospels  in  the  first  propagation  of  the 
faith,  and  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  scope  and  effect  of 
Professor  Seeley's  work. 

The  formation  of  the  new  Government  filled  timid  men 
with  uneasy  misgivings.  It  was  obvious  that  in  an  Admin- 
istration presided  over  by  a  delicate  old  man  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  the  ardent  and  vigorous  Leader  of  the  House  of 
Commons  would  be  virtually  Prime  Minister,  Had  any 
difference  of  opinion  arisen  between  Lord  Russell  and  his 
distinguished  lieutenant,  the  position  of  the  elder  states- 
man would,  no  doubt,  have  been  difficult.  But  on  the  im- 
mediate business  of  the  Government  they  were  absolutely 
of  one  mind.  Lord  Russell  was  from  first  to  last  a  parlia- 
mentary reformer.     The  Reform  Act  of   1832  had  been 


RUSSELL  AND    REFORM  1 79 

the  main  achievement  of  his  life  ;  but  he  still  had  the  cause 
at  heart,  and  no  long  period  ever  passed  without  some 
attempt  on  his  part  to  give  further  effect  to  his  favourite 
policy  of  measured  and  moderate  reform.  In  1849  ^^  ^"" 
successfully  tried  to  persuade  his  colleagues  in  the  Cabinet 
that  the  time  was  ripe  for  a  further  extension  of  the  suf- 
frage. In  1852  he  brought  in  a  Reform  Bill,  but  was 
turned  out  of  office  before  it  proceeded  further;  in  1854 
he  brought  in  a  second  Bill,  which  the  outbreak  of  the 
Crimean  War  compelled  him  to  withdraw;  and  in  i860  he 
brought  in  and  withdrew  a  third.  After  these  repeated 
failures  and  disappointments,  he  gladly  embraced  the  op- 
portunity of  completing  in  old  age  the  work  to  which  his 
youth  and  early  manhood  had  been  dedicated ;  and  it  is 
curious  to  note  his  sanguine  expectation  that  the  measure 
which,  in  concert  with  Mr.  Gladstone,  he  now  prepared, 
might  settle  the  question  of  parliamentary  reform  'for  a 
considerable  time — say,  to  the  end  of  the  century  or  longer.' 
The  subjoined  extract  from  Sir  Stafford  Northcote's  diary 
belongs  to  this  period.  It  is  difficult  to  read  it  without  a 
suspicion  that  the  astute  Mr.  Disraeli  was  practising  on  the 
simplicity  of  the  most  candid  politician  in  his  party : 

February  3,  1S66. — Long  talk  with  Dis.  this  afternoon.  He 
says  he  communicated  with  Lord  D(erby)  after  the  election, 
putting  before  him  the  scattering  of  our  friends  and  the  ne- 
cessity of  reconstruction  ;  that  he  told  him  he  thought  recon- 
struction could  not  be  carried  through  without  a  change  of 
leader  in  one  or  the  other  House,  and  that  he  was  himself 
willing  to  give  up  the  lead  in  the  Commons  in  order  to  facil- 
itate it ;  that  Lord  D.  rejected  that  idea,  and  did  not  seem  to 
appreciate  the  alternative ;  that  they  had  had  various  com- 
munications by  letter  and  by  word  of  mouth ;  and  that  they 
had  discussed  the  question  of  possible  arrangements  with  the 


l8o  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Duke  of  Cleveland,  Lord  Clarendon,  the  Duke  of  Somerset, 
and  others.  Lord  D.  considered  that  if  Dis.  gave  up  the  lead 
of  the  Commons,  there  was  nobody  for  it  but  W.  E.  G., '  who 
is  quite  prepared  to  take  the  high  Conservative  line':  'but 
we  should  never  get  on  together— he  would  always  be  quar- 
relling with  me,  and  I  should  be  thinking  he  wanted  to  trip 
me  up.' 

The  new  Parliament  was  opened  on  February  6,  1866, 
the  Queen  appearing  at  the  ceremony  for  the  first  time 
since  her  widowhood. 

In  the  Speech  from  the  Throne,  it  was  announced  that 
the  attention  of  Parliament  would  be  directed  to  '  such  im- 
provements in  the  laws  which  regulate  the  right  of  voting 
in  the  election  of  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  as 
may  tend  to  strengthen  our  free  institutions,  and  conduce 
to  the  public  welfare.'^ 

Mr.  Gladstone's  first  appearance  as  Leader  of  the 
House  of  Commons  was  awaited  with  curiosity,  hopeful  or 
anxious  according  to  the  prepossessions  of  the  onlooker. 
His  friends  were  anxious  lest  his  passionate  earnestness, 
his  intense  volition,  his  insensibility  to  moral  perspective 
and  proportion,  should  lead  him  into  fanatical  and  dan- 
gerous excesses.  His  enemies  hoped  and  believed  that  he 
would  make  himself  ridiculous  and  ruin  his  cause.  Dis- 
passionate outsiders  were  simply  amused  by  the  perplexity 
of  moderate  and  timid  Liberals,  who,  just  returned  to  Par- 
liament as  supporters  of  Lord  Palmerston's  easy-going 
rule,  suddenly  found  themselves  chained  to  the  chariot- 
wheels  of  his  incalculable  successor.  On  March  12  Bishop 
Wilberforce,  always  observant  and  discriminating,  writes : 
'  Gladstone  has  risen  entirely  to  his  position,  and  done  all 
his  most  sanguine  friends  hoped  for  as  leader. .  .  .  There  is 


THE    REFORM    BILL,   1 866  l8l 

a  general  feeling  of  the  insecurity  of  the  Ministry,  and  the 
Reform  Bill  to  be  launched  to-night  is  thought  a  bad  rock.' 

The  following  quotation  from  Mr,  Forster's  diary  per- 
tains to  this  period :  '  I  went  with  Gibson  to  Gladstone  at 
ten,  and  talked  hard  with  him  till  about  twelve.  He  was 
very  free  and  cordial,  and  let  me  talk  as  much  as  anyone ; 
but  he  does  as  much  as  Johnny  does  little.  I  went  over 
the  reform  question  with  him,  up  and  down,  and  I  think 
he  really  took  in  what  I  said.'  Lord  Houghton  writes : 
'  I  sat  by  Gladstone  at  the  Delameres'.  He  was  very 
much  excited,  not  only  about  politics,  but  cattle-plague, 
china,  and  everything  else.  It  is  indeed  a  contrast  to 
Palmerston's  Ha  !  ha  !  and  laissez-faire.^ 

The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  introduced  the  Re- 
form Bill  in  a  speech  marked  by  all  his  singular  skill  in  ex- 
position, and  rising  in  its  peroration  to  a  high  pitch  of 
eloquence.     The  provisions  of  the  Bill  were  briefly  these : 

It  was  first  proposed  to  create  an  occupation  franchise  in 
counties,  including  houses  at  14/.  rental,  and  reaching  up  to 
50/.,  the  present  occupation  franchise.  It  was  calculated  that 
this  would  add  171,000  persons  to  the  electoral  list.  Next  it 
was  proposed  to  introduce  into  counties  the  provision  which 
copyholders  and  leaseholders  within  parliamentary  boroughs 
now  possessed  for  the  purpose  of  county  votes.  The  third 
proposition  was  a  savings-bank  franchise,  which  would  oper- 
ate in  counties  and  towns,  but  which  would  have  a  more  im- 
portant operation  in  the  former.  All  adult  males  who  had 
deposited  50/.  in  a  savings-bank  for  two  years  would  be  en- 
titled to  be  registered  for  the  place  in  which  they  resided. 
This  privilege  would  add  from  10,000  to  15,000  electors  to  the 
constituencies  of  England  and  Wales.  In  towns  it  was  pro- 
posed to  place  compound  householders  on  the  same  footing 
as  ratepayers.  It  was  intended  to  abolish  the  ratepaying 
clauses  of  the  Reform  Act,  which  would  admit  about  25,000 


1 82  MR.   GLADSTONE 

voters  above  the  line  of  lo/.  It  was  also  proposed  to  intro- 
duce a  lodger  franchise,  both  for  those  persons  holding  part 
of  a  house  with  separate  and  independent  access,  and  for  those 
who  held  part  of  a  house  as  inmates  of  the  family  of  another 
person.  Then  there  was  the  \ol.  clear  annual  value  of  apart- 
ments, without  reference  to  furniture.  It  was  further  pro- 
posed to  abolish  the  necessity,  in  the  case  of  registered  voters, 
for  residence  at  the  time  ot  voting.  Lastly,  following  the 
precedent  of  the  Government  of  Lord  Derby,  they  would  in- 
troduce a  clause  disabling  from  voting  persons  who  were  em- 
ployed in  the  Government  yards.  The  total  number  of  new 
voters,  of  all  classes,  would  be  400,000. 

The  Bill  was  not  well  received.  The  Conservative 
party  was  united  and  eager  against  it;  the  Liberals  were 
divided.  They  had  not  been  elected  to  support  a  Reform 
Bill,  and  they  were  angry  at  a  proposal  which,  apart  from 
its  intrinsic  purpose,  would,  if  carried,  involve  another 
general  election  at  an  early  date.  Those  who  supported 
the  Bill  were  not  more  than  lukewarm,  and  a  compact  and 
powerful  section  of  Liberals  organized  themselves  against 
the  Government.  Mr.  Bright  gave  these  gentry  a  nick- 
name which  has  passed  into  the  permanent  language  of 
politics  when  he  said  that  their  leader  had  retired  into 
his  political  cave  of  Adullam,  to  which  he  invited  every- 
one who  was  in  distress  and  everyone  who  was  discon- 
tented. 

But,  in  spite  of  sarcasm  and  eloquence,  the  blandish- 
ments of  Whips,  and  the  pressure  of  constituencies,  the 
Cave  gained  fresh  recruits,  and  the  opposition  to  the  Gov- 
ernment became  more  bitter  and  intense.  It  found  utter- 
ance in  a  series  of  speeches  on  the  perils  of  democracy, 
by  Mr.  Robert  Lowe,  now  Lord  Sherbrooke,  which  in 
polished  beauty  of  diction,  force  of  argument,  and  aptness 


THE  'banner'   speech  1 83 

of  illustrative  quotation,  are  entitled  to  rank  with  the  most 
famous  orations  ever  delivered  in  Parliament. 

In  the  early  morning  of  April  28  Mr.  Gladstone  rose  in 
a  crowded  and  excited  House  to  wind  up  the  debate  on 
the  second  reading.  When  a  man  has  spoken  so  much 
and  so  well,  it  is  a  hazardous  attempt  to  single  out  the  best 
of  his  speeches.  But  this  may  safely  be  said — that,  if  Mr. 
Gladstone  ever  spoke  as  well  as  on  this  occasion,  he  never 
spoke  better.  Mr.  'Disraeli  had  been  foolish  enough  to 
remind  his  rival  of  that  speech  in  the  Oxford  Union 
against  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  of  which  mention  has 
been  made  in  an  earlier  chapter.  Mr.  Gladstone  now  re- 
torted on  him  with  crushing  effect : 

The  right  hon.  gentleman,  secure  in  the  recollection  of  his 
own  consistency,  has  taunted  me  with  the  errors  of  my  boy- 
hood. When  he  addressed  the  hon.  member  for  Westminster, 
he  showed  his  magnanimity  by  declaring  that  he  would  not 
take  the  philosopher  to  task  for  what  he  wrote  twenty-five 
years  ago  ;  but  when  he  caught  one  who,  thirty-six  years  ago, 
just  emerged  from  boyhood,  and  still  an  undergraduate  at 
Oxford,  had  expressed  an  opinion  adverse  to  the  Reform  Bill 
of  1832,  of  which  he  had  so  long  and  bitterly  repented,  then 
the  right  hon.  gentleman  could  not  resist  the  temptation. 
He,  a  parliamentary  leader  of  twenty  years'  standing,  is  so 
ignorant  of  the  House  of  Commons  that  he  positively  thought 
he  got  a  parliamentary  advantage  by  exhibiting  me  as  an 
opponent  of  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832.  As  the  right  hon.  gen- 
tleman has  exhibited  me,  let  me  exhibit  myself.  It  is  true,  I 
deeply  regret  it,  but  I  was  bred  under  the  shadow  of  the  great 
name  of  Canning:  every  influence  connected  with  that  name 
governed  the  politics  of  my  childhood  and  of  my  youth  ;  with 
Canning  I  rejoiced  in  the  removal  of  religious  disabilities,  and 
in  the  character  which  he  gave  to  our  policy  abroad ;  with 
Canning  I  rejoiced  in  the  opening  which  he  made  towards 
the  establishment  of  free  commercial  interchanG;es  between 


1 84  MR.  GLADSTONE 

nations ;  with  Canning,  and  under  the  shadow  of  that  great 
name,  and  under  the  shadow  of  that  yet  more  venerable  name 
of  Burke,  I  grant,  my  youthful  mind  and  imagination  were 
impressed  just  the  same  as  the  mature  mind  of  the  right  hon. 
gentleman  is  now  impressed.  I  had  conceived  that  fear  and 
alarm  of  the  first  Reform  Bill  in  the  days  of  my  undergrad- 
uate career  at  Oxford,  which  the  right  hon.  gentleman  now 
feels;  and  the  only  difference  between  us  is  this — I  thank  him 
for  bringing  it  out — that,  having  those  views,  I  moved  the  Ox- 
ford Union  Debating  Society  to  express  them  clearly,  plainly, 
forcibly,  in  downright  English,  and  that  the  right  hon.  gen- 
tleman is  still  obliged  to  skulk  under  the  cover  of  the  amend- 
ment of  the  noble  lord.  I  envy  him  not  one  particle  of  the 
polemical  advantage  which  he  has  gained  by  his  discreet  ref- 
erence to  the  proceedings  of  the  Oxford  Union  Debating  So- 
ciety in  the  year  of  grace  1831.  My  position,  sir,  in  regard  to 
the  Liberal  party  is  in  all  points  the  opposite  of  Earl  Rus- 
sell's. ...  I  have  none  of  the  claims  he  possesses.  I  came 
among  you  an  outcast  from  those  with  whom  I  associated, 
driven  from  them,  I  admit,  by  no  arbitrary  act,  but  by  the 
slow  and  resistless  forces  of  conviction.  I  came  among  you, 
to  make  use  of  the  legal  phraseology,  in  forma  patipcris.  I 
had  nothing  to  offer  you  but  faithful  and  honourable  service. 
You  received  me,  as  Dido  receiv^ed  the  shipwrecked  .^neas — 

Ejectum  littore,  egentem 
Excepi, 

and  1  only  trust  you  may  not  hereafter  at  any  time  have  to 
complete  the  sentence  in  regard  to  me — 

Et  regni  demens  in  parte  locavi. 

You  received  me  with  kindness,  indulgence,  generosity,  and  I 
may  even  say  with  some  measure  of  confidence.  And  the 
relation  between  us  has  assumed  such  a  form  that  you  can 
never  be  my  debtors,  but  that  I  must  for  ever  be  in  your  debt. 
It  is  not  from  me,  under  such  circumstances,  that  any  word 
will  proceed  that  can  savour  of  the  character  which  the  right 


'DEPRAVED    AND    CROOKED'  185 

hon.  gentleman  imputes  to  the  conduct  of  the  Government 
with  respect  to  the  present  Bill. 

The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  thus  concluded  his 
impassioned  speech  : 

Sir,  we  are  assailed ;  this  Bill  is  in  a  state  of  crisis  and  of 
peril,  and  the  Government  along  with  it.  We  stand  or  fall  with 
it,  as  has  been  declared  by  my  noble  friend  Lord  Russell.  We 
stand  with  it  now ;  we  may  fall  with  it  a  short  time  hence.  If 
we  do  so  fall,  we,  or  others  in  our  places,  shall  rise  with  it  here- 
after. I  shall  not  attempt  to  measure  with  precision  the  forces 
that  are  to  be  arrayed  against  us  in  the  coming  issue.  Perhaps 
the  great  division  of  to-night  is  not  the  last  that  must  take  place 
in  the  struggle.  At  some  point  of  the  contest  you  may  possibly 
succeed.  You  may  drive  us  from  our  seats.  You  may  bury  the 
Bill  that  we  have  introduced,  but  we  will  write  upon  its  grave- 
stone for  an  epitaph  this  line,  with  certain  confidence  in  its 
fulfilment  — 

Exoriare  aliquis  nostris  ex  ossibus  ultor. 

You  cannot  fight  against  the  future.  Time  is  on  our  side.  The 
great  social  forces  which  move  onwards  in  their  might  and 
majesty,  and  which  the  tumult  of  our  debates  does  not  for  a 
moment  impede  Or  disturb — those  great  social  forces  are  against 
you  :  they  are  marshalled  on  our  side  ;  and  the  banner  which 
we  now  carry  in  this  fight,  though  perhaps  at  some  moment  it 
may  droop  over  our  sinking  heads,  yet  it  soon  again  will  float  in 
the  eye  of  Heavert,  and  it  will  be  borne  by  the  firm  hands  of 
the  united  people  of  the  three  kingdoms,  perhaps  not  to  an 
easy,  but  to  a  certain,  and  to  a  not  far  distant,  victory. 

An  extraordinary  instance  of  Mr,  Gladstone's  power  of 
dismissing  even  the  most  absorbing  cares  the  moment  that 
active  business  is  over,  is  related  in  connexion  with  this 
debate.  In  the  course  of  his  speech  he  had  referred  to 
certain  opponents  of  reform  as  '  depraved  and  crooked 
little  men.'     A  friend  who  recognized  the  allusion  to  the 


l86  MR.  GLADSTONE 

517th  line  of  the  '  Acharnians/  asked  him  in  the  lobby, 
while  the  momentous  division  was  proceeding,  whether  he 
thought  '  crooked '  an  apt  translation  of  -KapaKEKomiiva — a 
word  that  describes  imperfect  coin  on  which  the  die  has 
fallen  askew.  The  next  morning  the  critic  received  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Gladstone,  written  after  the  division  and  before  he 
went  to  bed,  explaining  that '  misbegotten '  would  have  been 
in  his  view  nearer  the  meaning,  but  that,  for  purposes  of  de- 
bate, '  crooked '  was  a  better,  because  a  less  offensive,  word. 
The  division  was  taken  amid  breathless  excitement, 
and  its  result  was  announced  in  a  tumult  of  reactionary 
delight.  The  second  reading  was  carried,  but  only  by  a 
majority  of  five.  The  authority  of  the  Government  was 
rudely  shaken,  and  resignation  was  rumoured.  On  June 
6  Bishop  Wilberforce  v/rote :  '  Gladstone  is,  I  believe,  de- 
termined if  possible  to  force  through  the  Reform  Bill. 
Many  of  his  colleagues  would  defer  it.'  But  Lord  Russell 
and  Mr.  Gladstone  agreed  to  some  conciliatory  conces- 
sions, and  v/ent  on  with  the  Bill.  The  concessions,  how- 
ever, proved  useless,  and  difficulties  increased.  On  June 
18  Lord  Dunkellin  carried  a  motion  against  the  Govern- 
ment, substituting  rating  for  rental  as  the  basis  of  the 
franchise  in  boroughs.     It  was  the  anniversary  of  Water- 

« 

loo,  and  the  coincidence  was  thus  happily  commemorated 
by  Mr.  (now  Sir  George)  Trevelyan,  who,  then  as  now  an 
eager  reformer,  had  first  entered  Parliament  at  the  pre- 
ceding election : 

Just  one -and -fifty  years  had  gone  since  on  the  Belgian  plain, 
Amidst  the  scorched  and  trampled  rye,  Napoleon  turned  his 

rein, 
And  once  again  in  panic  fled  a  gallant  host  and  proud. 
And  once  again  a  chief  of  might  'neath  Fortune's  malice  bowed. 


A  PARLIAMENTARY  WATERLOO  1 8/ 

So  vast  and  serried  an  array,  so  brave  and  fair  to  view. 
Ne'er  mustered  yet  around  the  flag  of  mingled  buff  and  blue — 
So  potent  in  the  show  of  strength,  in  seeming  zeal  so  bold — 
Since  Grey  went  forth  in  '32  to  storm  corruption's  hold. 
But  in  the  pageant  all  is  bright,  and,  till  the  shock  we  feel, 
We  learn  not  what  is  burnished  tin,  and  what  is  tempered  steel. 
When  comes  the  push  of   charging  ranks,  when  spear  and 

buckler  clash, 
Then  snaps  the  shaft  of  treacherous  fir,  then  holds  the  trusty 

ash. 
And  well  the  fatal  truth  we  knew  when  sounds  of  lawless  fight 
In  baleful  concert  down  the  line  came  pealing  from  our  right. 
Which,  in  the  hour  of  sorest  need,  upon  our  centre  fell. 
Where  march  the  good  old  houses  still  that  love  the  people  well. 
As  to  and  fro  our  battle  swayed  in  terror,  doubt,  and  shame, 
Like  wolves  among  the  trembling  flock  the  Tory  vanguard 

came, 
And  scattered  us  as  startled  girls  to  tree  and  archway  go. 
Whene'er  the  pattering  hailstorm  sweeps  along  the  crowded 

Row. 
A  moment  yet  with  shivered  blade,  torn  scarf,  and  pennon  reft, 
Imperial  Gladstone  turned  to  bay  amidst  our  farthest  left. 
Where,  shoulder  tight  to  shoulder  set,  fought  on  in  sullen  pride, 
The  Veterans  staunch  who  drink  the  streams  of  Tyne,  and 

Wear,  and  Clyde ; 
Who've  borne  the  toil,  and  heat,  and  blows  of  many  a  hopeless 

fray ; 
Who  serve  uncheered  by  rank  and  fame,  unbought  by  place  or 

pay. 
At  length,  deserted  and  outmatched,  by  fruitless  efforts  spent, 
From  that  disastrous  field  of  strife  our  steps  we  homeward 

bent — 
Ere  long  to  ride  in  triumph  back,  escorted  near  and  far 
By  eager  millions  surging  on  behind  our  hero's  car; 
While  blue  and  yellow  streamers  deck  each  Tory  convert's 

brow, 
And  both  the  Carltons  swell  the  shout :  '  We're  all  reformers 

now.' 


l88  MR.    GLADSTONE 

The  Ministry  immediately  resigned.     The  Queen  was 
very  unwilling  to  accept  their  resignation.     She  pointed 
out  the  perils  of  a  change  of  Government  at  a  moment 
when  war  between  Prussia  and  Austria  seemed  imminent ; 
and  the   apathy  of  the  south  of  England  about  reform, 
which  Lord  Russell  had  assigned  as  a  reason  against  dis- 
solution, seemed  to  her  Majesty  equally  valid  against  res- 
ignation.    The  Ministers,  however,  felt  that  they  had  lost 
the  confidence  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  they  perse- 
vered in  their  purpose.     On  June  26  their  resignation  was 
announced  to  Parliament.     It  was  received  with  great  ex- 
citement out  of  doors.     The  apathy  about  reform  which 
Lord  Russell  had  noticed  seemed,  as  far  as  London  was 
concerned,  to  have  disappeared.     On  June  27  some  ten 
thousand    people   assembled    in    Trafalgar    Square,    and 
passed  vehement  resolutions  in  favour  of  reform.     The 
reformers  then  marched  to  Carlton  House  Terrace,  sing- 
ing litanies  and  hymns  in  honour  of  Mr.  Gladstone.     He 
was  away  from  home,  but  Mrs.  Gladstone  and  her  family 
came  out  on  to  the  balcony  to  acknowledge  the  popular 
tribute.     Indeed,  Mr.  Gladstone  now  for  the  first  time  be- 
came a  popular  hero.     At  the  great  meetings  in  favour  of 
Reform,  which  were  held  in  the  large  towns  of  the  North 
and  the  Midlands,  his  name  was  received  with  tumultuous 
acclamation.     Everjrvvhere  he  was  hailed  as  the  true  leader 
of  the  Liberal  Party. 

On  July  13,  Lord  Houghton  writes  to  a  friend  on 
the  Continent :  '  The  change  of  ministry  has  passed 
over  very  quietly.  It  was  a  real  collapse,  and  inevita- 
ble by  human  skill.  Gladstone  showed  a  real  fervour  of 
conviction,  which  has  won  him  the  attachment  of  300 
men,  and  the  horror  of  the  rest  of  the  House   of  Com- 


A  mare's  nest  189 

mons.     He  will  be  all  the  better  for  a  year  or  two's  op- 
position.' 

In  November,  1866,  Mr.  Gladstone,  accompanied  by 
his  family,  paid  a  visit  to  Rome,  and  had  an  audience  of 
Pio  Nono.  In  reference  to  this  interview  it  became  nec- 
essary, two  years  later,  for  Mr.  Gladstone  formally  to  deny 
'  that  when  at  Rome  I  made  arrangements  with  the  Pope 
to  destroy  the  Church  Establishment  in  Ireland,  with  some 
other  like  matters,  being  myself  a  Roman  Catholic  at 
heart' 


190  MRo  GLADSTONE 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Tory  Reform  Bill — Liberal  mutiny — Triumphant  Opposition — 
Proposes  to  disestablish  the  Irish  Church — The  General  Election 
of  1868 — Defeated  in  South-west  Lancashire — Returned  for  Green- 
wich— Liberal  majority — Prime  Minister — Disestablishment  of  the 
Irish  Church. 

In  announcing  his  acceptance  of  office  in  the  summer  of 

1866,  Lord  Derby  said  that  he  reserved  to  himself  entire 
liberty  to  deal  with  the  question  of  parliamentary  reform 
whenever  suitable  occasion  should  arise.  The  strong  and 
enthusiastic  agitation  in  favour  of  reform  which  proceeded 
during  the  recess,  and  was  signalized  by  some  of  Mr. 
Bright's  most  powerful  speeches,  determined  the  course  of 
the  Government.     Parliament  met  on  the  5th  of  February, 

1867,  and  the  Speech  from  the  Throne  announced  that  at- 
tention would  again  be  called  to  the  representation  of  the 
people.  On  the  i  ith  of  the  same  month,  Mr.  Disraeli  went 
down  to  the  House  of  Commons,  and,  calmly  premising 
that  he  and  his  colleagues  had  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  reform  was.no  longer  a  question  which  should  decide 
the  fate  of  Ministries,  went  on  to  explain  the  principles 
on  which  the  Government  intended  to  proceed. 

It  was  his  purpose,  he  said,  to  submit  resolutions,  and 
on  the  25th  of  February  he  gave  the  details. 


'A   LEAP   IN  THE  DARK'  I9I 

He  proposed  to  reduce  the  occupation  franchise  in  bor- 
oughs to  a  6/.  rating;  in  counties  to  20/.;  the  franchise  was  also 
to  be  extended  to  any  person  having  50/.  in  the  Funds,  or  30/. 
in  a  savings-bank  for  a  year.  Payment  of  20/.  of  direct  taxes 
would  also  be  a  title  to  the  franchise,  as  would  a  university  de- 
gree. Votes  would  further  be  given  to  clergymen,  ministers 
of  religion  generally,  members  of  the  learned  professions,  and 
certificated  school-masters.  It  was  proposed  to  disfranchise 
Yarmouth,  Lancaster,  Reigate,  and  Totnes,  and  to  take  one 
member  each  from  twenty -three  boroughs  with  less  than 
7,000  inhabitants.  The  House  would  have  thirty  seats  to  dis- 
pose of,  and  it  was  proposed  to  allot  fourteen  of  them  to  new 
boroughs  in  the  Northern  and  Midland  districts,  fifteen  to 
counties  and  one  to  the  London  University.  The  second  di- 
vision of  the  Tower  Hamlets  would  return  two  members,  and 
several  new  county  divisions  named  would  have  two  additional 
members  each.  The  scheme  would  add  212,000  voters  to  the 
borough,  and  206,500  to  the  county,  constituencies. 

Mr.  Gladstone  pointed  out  the  inconvenience  of  pro- 
ceeding by  resolution ;  his  view  was  supported  by  the 
great  bulk  of  the  Opposition,  and  the  Government,  with 
amiable  willingness  to  oblige  everybody,  undertook  to  in- 
troduce a  Bill. 

Lord  Shaftesbury's  observations  on  this  conjuncture 
may  be  read  with  interest  : 

March  4,  1867. — It  seems  to  me  monstrous  that  a  body  of 
men  who  resisted  Mr.  Gladstone's  Bill  as  an  extreme  measure 
with  such  great  pertinacity,  should  accept  the  power  he  retired 
from,  and  six  months  afterwards  introduce  a  Bill  many  de- 
grees nearer  than  his  to  universal  suffrage,  and  establishing, 
beyond  all  contradiction,  the  principle  they  so  fiercely  com- 
bated, of  giving  a  predominant  interest  to  any  class. 

March  9. — Here  are  two  tigers  over  a  carcase ;  and  each  one 
tries  to  drive  the  other  away  from  the  tit-bits.  '  What  was  a 
conflict  last  year,'  says  Lowe, '  is  a  race  now.'  .  .  .  Derby  told 


192 


MR.  GLADSTONE 


his  friends  that  if  they  passed  his  Bill  they  would  be  in  office 
for  many  years.  Thus  it  is ;  all  alike— all  equally  carnivo- 
rous. .  .  .  '  Voila  ce  que  nous  soninies,'  z.%  the  chiffonnier  said 
over  the  dead  cur. 

Even  at  this  moment  of  supreme  interest  in  the  political 
world,  Mr.  Gladstone  still  kept  a  careful  eye  on  the  policy 
and  fortunes  of  the  Church.  The  Bishops,  in  a  sudden  fit 
of  puritan  panic,  proposed  to  introduce  a  Bill  into  the 
House  of  Lords  for  the  purpose  of  stopping  ritualistic 
practices.  On  March  8,  Mr.  Gladstone  chanced  to  meet 
Archbishop  Longley  and  heard  this  project  from  his  lips. 
'  From  me,'  he  says,  *  this  communication  had  the  worst 
reception  I  could  possibly  give  it,  without  departing  from 
my  great  personal  respect  and  deference  to  the  Archbishop. 
...  I  think  it  idle  to  suppose  a  Bill  such  as  this  can  pass 
the  House  of  Commons  without  raising  many  and  large 
questions.  I  am  afraid  it  would  throw  me  into  a  very  anti- 
episcopal  position.  In  any  case  I  must  reserve  to  myself 
perfect  freedom.'  Mr.  Gladstone's  energetic  intervention 
frightened  the  Bishops ;  they  dropped  their  project  with 
all  convenient  speed,  and  offered  to  take  instead  a  Royal 
Commission,  which  should  enquire  into  all  the  rubrics 
governing  the  celebration  of  Divine  worship.  It  sat, 
examined,  and  reported  innocuously  at  a  later  date ;  and 
thus,  as  Bishop  Wilberforce  gushingly  said,  Mr.  Gladstone 
was  enabled  to  stay  this  counsel  of  fear  which  threatened 
destruction. 

The  Reform  Bill  was  introduced  on  March  18,  1867. 

Its  principles  were  that  in  boroughs  the  electors  should 
be  all  who  paid  rates,  or  twenty  shillings  in  direct  taxes ; 
the  franchise  would  also  be  extended  to  certain  classes 
qualified  by  education,  or  by  the  possession  of  a  stated 


'THE   CONSERVATIVE   SURRENDER'  I93 

amount  in  the  Funds,  or  in  savings-banks — rated  hovise- 
holders  to  have  a  second  vote.  The  redistribution  of  seats 
would  be  on  the  hnes  already  specified.  To  guard  against 
the  power  of  mere  numbers,  it  was  proposed  to  establish  a 
system  of  checks,  based  on  residence,  rating,  and  dual  vot- 
ing. Mr.  Gladstone  strongly  condemned  these  securities 
as  illusions  or  frauds,  which  would  be  abandoned  whenever 
it  suited  the  Ministry ;  and  he  also  predicted  that  the 
franchise  would  have  to  be  conferred  on  lodgers. 

The  introduction  of  the  Bill  led  to  the  resignation  of 
Lord  Cranborne  (now  Lord  Salisbury),  Lord  Carnarvon, 
and  General  Peel,  and  those  who  wish  to  know  the  senti- 
ments with  which  Lord  Salisbury  regarded  the  political 
morality  of  his  respected  predecessor  in  the  Premiership 
are  referred  to  his  speeches  on  the  various  stages  of  the 
Bill,  and  to  an  article  on  '  The  Conservative  Surrender '  in 
the  'Quarterly  Review'  for  July,  1867.  The  Bill  was  read 
a  second  time  without  a  division.  In  committee  the  fight 
waxed  fast  and  furious,  and  was  marked  by  some  brisk 
encounters  between  the  Leader  of  the  House  and  Mr. 
Gladstone.  At  the  conclusion  of  one  of  these  passages  of 
arms,  Mr.  Disraeli  gravely  congratulated  himself  on  having 
such  a  substantial  piece  of  furniture  as  the  table  of  the 
House  between  him  and  his  energetic  opponent.  In  May, 
1867,  Lord  Houghton  writes  thus  :  '  I  met  Gladstone  at 
breakfast.  He  seems  quite  awed  with  the  diabolical 
cleverness  of  Dizzy,  who,  he  says,  is  gradually  driving 
all  ideas  of  political  honour  out  of  the  House,  and  accus- 
toming it  to  the  most  revolting  cynicism.'  At  the  same 
time  Mr.  Gladstone's  relations  with  his  own  party  were 
not  wholly  harmonious,  and  the  refusal  of  some  fifty  of  his 
supporters  to  follow  him  in  the  tactics  with  which  he  pro- 
13 


194  MR.  GLADSTONE 

posed  to  meet  the  Bill  in  committee  led  to  his  temporary 
and  partial  withdrawal  from  the  functions  of  leadership. 
In  committee  the  Bill  underwent  such  extensive  alterations 
at  the  hands  of  the  Liberals  and  Radicals  that,  when  it 
was  read  a  third  time,  Lord  Cranborne  expressed  his  as- 
tonishment at  hearing  the  Bill  described  as  a  Conserva- 
tive triumph.  It  was  right  that  its  real  parentage  should 
be  established.  The  Bill,  he  said,  had  been  modified  at 
the  dictation  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  demanded,  first,  the 
lodger  franchise;  secondly,  the  abolition  of  distinctions  be- 
tween compounders  and  non-compounders ;  thirdly,  a  pro- 
vision to  prevent  traffic  in  votes;  fourthly,  the  omission 
of  the  taxing  franchise  ;  fifthly,  the  omission  of  the  dual 
vote ;  sixthly,  the  enlargement  of  the  distribution  of  seats, 
which  had  been  enlarged  by  fifty  per  cent. ;  seventhly,  the 
reduction  of  the  county  franchise ;  eighthly,  the  omission 
of  voting-papers ;  ninthly  and  tenthly,  the  omission  of  the 
educational  and  savings-banks  franchises.  All  these  points 
had  been  conceded.  If  the  adoption  of  the  principles  of 
Mr.  Bright  could  be  described  as  a  triumph,  then  indeed 
the  Conservative  party,  in  the  whole  history  of  its  previous 
annals,  had  won  no  triumph  so  signal  as  this.  '  I  desire  to 
protest,  in  the  most  earnest  language  I  am  capable  of 
using,  against  the  political  morality  on  which  the  manoeuvres 
of  this  year  have  been  based.  If  you  borrow  your  political 
ethics  from  the  ethics  of  the  political  adventurer,  you  may 
depend  upon  it  the  whole  of  your  representative  institutions 
will  crumble  beneath  your  feet.' 

When  the  Bill  reached  the  House  of  Lords,  the  Duke 
of  Buccleuch,  a  potentate  little  given  to  epigram,  declared 
that  the  only  word  in  it  which  remained  unaltered  was  the 
first  word,  'whereas.'      This  was  really  a  heightened  and 


'DISHING  THE  WHIGS  '  I95 

effective  way  of  stating  the  plain  truth  that  a  Tory  Govern- 
ment, acting  under  Liberal  pressure,  had  given  England  a 
democratic  reform.  Household  suffrage  in  towns  was  now 
the  foundation  on  which  the  English  Constitution  reposed. 
Lord  Derby  admitted  that  it  was  a  'leap  in  the  dark.'  Mr. 
Disraeli  vaunted  that  he  had  'educated  his  party'  to  the 
point  of  accepting  it.  But  both  alike  took  comfort  in  the 
fact  that  they  had  'dished  the  Whigs.'  This  was  undeni- 
ably true,  and  the  section  of  the  Whigs  who  had  coalesced 
with  the  Tories  to  defeat  Lord  Russell's  very  moderate 
measure  of  the  previous  year  now  gnashed  their  teeth  in 
amazed  and  impotent  disgust.  It  was  amusing  to  witness 
their  grimaces;  and  the  spectacle  contained  some  profit- 
able lessons  for  those  who  endeavour  by  a  political  com- 
bination to  defeat  the  popular  will. 

For  the  moment  Mr.  Disraeli's  triumph  was  complete. 
On  August  18,  1867,  Bishop  Wilberforce  wrote:  'No  one 
even  guesses  at  the  political  future.  Whether  a  fresh  elec- 
tion will  strengthen  the  Conservatives  or  not  seems  alto- 
gether doubtful.  The  most  wonderful  thing  is  the  rise  of 
Disraeli.  It  is  not  the  mere  assertion  of  talent,  as  you 
hear  so  many  say.  It  seems  to  me  quite  beside  that.  He 
has  been  able  to  teach  the  House  of  Commons  almost  to 
ignore  Gladstone,  and  at  present  lords  it  over  him,  and,  I 
am  told,  says  that  he  will  hold  him  dotvnfor  twenty  years. ^ 
On  August  24  Mr.  Maurice  wrote  thus  to  his  son : 

I  am  glad  you  have  seen  Gladstone,  and  have  been  able  to 
judge  a  little  of  what  his  face  indicates.  It  is  a  very  expressive 
one ;  hard-worked  as  you  say,  and  not  perhaps  specially  happy ; 
more  indicative  of  struggle  than  of  victory,  though  not  without 
promise  of  that.  I  admire  him  for  his  patient  attention  to  de- 
tails, and  for  the  pains  which  he  takes  to  secure  himself  from 


196  MR.  GLADSTONE 

being  absorbed  in  them,  by  entering  into  large  and  generous 
studies.  He  has  preserved  the  type  which  I  can  remember  that 
he  bore  at  the  University  thirty-six  years  ago,  though  it  has 
undergone  curious  developments. 

On  October  23  Bishop  Wilberforce  writes,  after  meet- 
ing Lord  Clarendon  in  a  country-house  :  '  Clarendon  spoke 
to  me  with  the  utmost  bitterness  of  Lord  Derby.  Had 
studied  him  ever  since  he  (Clarendon)  was  in  the  House 
of  Lords.  .  .  .  He  had  only  agreed  to  this  (the  Reform 
Bill)  as  he  would  of  old  have  backed  a  horse  at  Newmar- 
ket. Hated  Disraeli,  but  believed  in  him  as  he  would 
have  done  in  an  unprincipled  trainer :  he  wins — that  is  all. 
He  knows  the  garlic  given,  &c.  He  says  to  those  without, 
"All  fair,  gentlemen." ' 

At  Christmas,  1867,  the  venerable  Lord  Russell,  who 
had  now  reached  his  seventy-sixth  year,  announced  his 
final  retirement  from  active  politics  and  from  the  Leader- 
ship of  the  Liberal  party  in  the  House  of  Lords.  In  a 
touching  and  graceful  letter,  dated  December  26,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone assured  the  gallant  old  Whig  of  his  '  warm  attach- 
ment and  regard.  Every  incident  that  moves  me  farther 
from  your  side  is  painful  to  me.  ...  So  long  as  you  have 
been  ready  to  lead,  I  have  been  ready  and  glad  to  follow. 
...  I  am  relieved  to  think  that  the  conclusion  you  seem 
to  have  reached  involves  no  visible  severance  :  and  I  trust 
the  remainder  of  my  own  political  life,  which  I  neither  ex- 
pect nor  desire  to  be  very  long,  may  be  passed  in  efforts 
which  may  have  your  countenance  and  approval.' 

On  February  25th,  1868,  it  was  announced  in  both 
Houses  of  Parliament  that  Lord  Derby,  owing  to  failing 
health,  had  resigned  the  Premiership,  and  that  the  Queen 
had  entrusted  Mr.  Disraeli  with  the  task  of   forming  an 


'THE   DERBY   AND   THE   HOAX  '  1 97 

Administration.  It  was  a  striking  climax  to  an  extraordi- 
nary career.  Everyone  was  interested ;  most  people  were 
amused ;  some  disgusted.  Lord  Shaftesbury  thus  com- 
ments on  the  event :  '  Disraeli  Prime  Minister !  He  is  a 
Hebrew ;  this  is  a  good  thing.  He  is  a  man  sprung  from 
an  inferior  station  ;  another  good  thing  in  these  days,  as 
showing  the  liberality  of  our  institutions.  "  But  he  is  a 
leper,"  without  principle,  without  feeling,  without  regard 
to  anything,  human  or  divine,  beyond  his  own  personal 
ambition.  He  has  dragged,  and  he  will  long  continue  to 
drag,  everything  that  is  good,  safe,  venerable,  and  solid 
through  the  dust  and  dirt  of  his  own  objects.' 

Lord  Chelmsford  (whom,  by  the  way,  Mr.  Disraeli  had  ab- 
ruptly dismissed  from  the  Chancellorship)  observed, '  The 
old  Government  was  the  Derby ;  this  the  Hoax.'  The 
'Pall  Mall  Gazette,'  commenting  on  this  event,  wrote  : — 

One  of  the  most  grievous  and  constant  puzzles  of  King  David 
was  the  prosperity  of  the  wicked  and  the  scornful ;  and  the 
same  tremendous  moral  enigma  has  come  down  to  our  own 
days.  In  this  respect  the  earth  is  in  its  older  times  what  it  was 
in  its  youth.  Even  so  recently  as  last  week  the  riddle  once 
more  presented  itself  in  its  most  impressive  shape.  Like  the 
Psalmist,  the  Liberal  leader  may  well  protest  that  verily  he  has 
cleansed  his  heart  in  vain  and  washed  his  hands  in  innocency; 
all  day  long  he  has  been  plagued  by  Whig  lords,  and  chastened 
every  morning  by  Radical  manufacturers ;  as  blamelessly  as 
any  curate  he  has  written  about '  Ecce  Homo,'  and  he  has  never 
made  a  speech,  even  in  the  smallest  country  town,  without  call- 
ing out  with  David, '  How  foolish  am  I,  and  how  ignorant !' 
For  all  this  what  does  he  see  ?  The  scorner  who  shot  out  the 
lip  and  shook  the  head  at  him  across  the  table  of  the  House 
of  Commons  last  Session  has  now  more  than  heart  could  wish ; 
his  eyes— speaking  in  an  Oriental  manner — stand  out  with  fat- 
ness, he  speaketh  loftily,  and  pride  compasseth  him  aboui:^ 


198 


MR.  GLADSTONE 


with  a  chain.  It  is  all  very  well  to  say  that  the  candle  of  the 
wicked  is  put  out  in  the  long  run ;  that  they  are  as  stubble 
before  the  wind,  and  as  chaff  that  the  storm  carries  away.  So 
we  were  told  in  other  times  of  tribulation.  This  was  the  sort  of 
consolation  that  used  to  be  offered  in  the  jaunty  days  of  Lord 
Palmerston.  People  used  then  to  soothe  the  earnest  Liberal 
by  the  same  kind  of  argument,  'Only  wait,'  it  was  said,  'until  he 
has  retired,  and  all  will  be  well  with  us.'  But  no  sooner  has 
the  storm  carried  away  wicked  Whig  chaff  than  the  heavens 
are  forthwith  darkened  by  new  clouds  of  Tory  chaff. 

But  the  new  Prime  Minister,  though  in  office,  was  not 
in  power.  He  was  nominally  the  leader  of  a  House  which 
contained  a  large  majority  of  his  political  opponents. 
The  settlement  of  the  question  of  reform  had  healed  the 
schism  in  the  Liberal  Party,  and  they  now  could  defeat  the 
Government  whenever  they  chose  to  mass  their  forces. 
Early  in  the  Session  Mr.  Gladstone  brought  in  a  Bill  abol- 
ishing compulsory  Church  rates,  and  this  passed  into  law. 
On  March  16,  he  took  part  in  the  debate  on  the  motion 
of  an  Irish  member,  that  the  House  resolve  itself  into  a 
Committee  to  consider  the  state  of  Ireland.  Towards  the 
close  of  the  debate  he  said  that  Ireland  had  a  controversy 
with  us  and  a  long  account  against  us.  He  enumerated 
six  main  points  in  which  we  owed  her  a  debt  of  justice. 
One  of  these  was  the  Established  Church.  Religious  equal- 
ity, he  said,  must  be  conceded.  Referring  to  his  speech  on 
Mr.  Dillwyn's  motion  in  1865,  he  affirmed  :  'The  opinion  I 
held  then  and  hold  now — namely,  that  in  order  to  the  set- 
tlement of  this  question  of  the  Irish  Church,  tliat  Church,  as 
a  State  Church,  must  cease  to  exist.'  The  change  must 
come  ;  it  was  our  wisdom  and  our  duty  to  make  ready  for  it. 

.  If  we  are  prudent  men,  I  hope  we  shall  endeavour,  as  far  as 
in  us  lies,  to  make  some  provision  for  a  contingent,  a  doubtful 


THE   STAIN   ON   THE   SHIELD  1 99 

and  probably  a  dangerous  future.  If  we  be  chivalrous  men,  I 
trust  we  shall  endeavour  to  wipe  away  all  those  stains  which 
the  civilized  world  has  for  ages  seen,  or  seemed  to  see,  on  the 
shield  of  England  in  her  treatment  of  Ireland.  If  we  be  com- 
passionate men,  I  hope  we  shall  now,  once  for  all,  listen  to  the 
tale  of  woe  which  comes  from  her,  and  the  reality  of  which,  if 
not  its  justice,  is  testified  by  the  continuous  migration  of  her 
people — that  we  shall  endeavour  to 

Raze  out  the  written  troubles  from  her  brain, 
Pluck  from  her  memory  the  rooted  sorrow. 

But,  above  all,  if  we  be  just  men,  we  shall  go  forward  in  the 
name  of  truth  and  right,  bearing  this  in  mind — that  when  the 
case  is  proved,  and  the  hour  is  come,  justice  delayed  is  justice 
denied. 

And  so  at  last  the  great  secret  was  out.  Mr.  Gladstone 
had  made  up  his  mind  to  disestablish  the  Irish  Church, 
Those  who  remember  his  attitude  towards  Maynooth,  and 
his  letter  on  the  spiritual  efficiency  of  the  Irish  Establish- 
ment, will  know  that  it  was  no  sudden  resolve.  His  letter 
to  Dr.  Hannah  in  1865  only  meant  that  he  did  not  see 
how  soon  the  occasion  might  arise  for  giving  effect  to  an 
opinion  which  had  long  been  forming  in  his  mind.  The 
occasion  was  now  at  hand.  •^- 

On  March  23,  Mr.  Gladstone  gave  notice  o^-the  follow- 
ing resolutions  : 

I.  That,  in  the  opinion  of  this  House,  it  is  necessary  that 
the  Established  Church  of  Ireland  should  cease  to  exist  as  an 
establishment,  due  regard  being  had  to  all  personal  interests 
and  to  all  individual  rights  of  property.  2.  That,  subject  to 
the  foregoing  considerations,  it  is  expedient  to  prevent  the 
creation  of  new  personal  interests  by  the  exercise  of  any  public 
patronage,  and  to  confine  the  operations  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
Commissioners  of  Ireland  to  objects  of  immediate  necessity, 


200  MR.  GLADSTONE 

or  involving  individual  rights,  pending  the  final  decision  of 
Parliament.  3.  That  an  humble  address  be  presented  to  her 
Majesty,  humbly  to  pray  that,  with  a  view  to  the  purposes  afore- 
said, her  Majesty  will  be  graciously  pleased  to  place  at  the  dis- 
•posal  of  Parliament  her  interest  in  the  temporalities,  in  arch- 
bishoprics, bishoprics,  and  other  ecclesiastical  dignities  and 
benefices  in  Ireland  and  in  the  custody  thereof. 

Lord  Stanley  (now  Lord  Derby)  gave  notice,  on  behalf 
of  the  Government,  of  an  extremely  mild  amendment,  ad- 
mitting the  necessity  for  modifications  in  the  temporalities 
of  the  Church  of  Ireland,  but  recommending  that  proposals 
tending  to  disestablishment  and  disendowment  should  be 
left  to  the  decision  of  the  new  Parliament. 

On  March  25,  Bishop  Wilberforce  wrote:  'I  am  very 
sorry  Gladstone  has  moved  the  attack  on  the  Irish  Church. 
...  It  is  altogether  a  bad  business,  and  I  am  afraid 
Gladstone  has  been  drawn  into  it  from  the  unconscious  in- 
fluence of  his  restlessness  at  being  out  of  office.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  his  hatred  to  the  low  tone  of  the  Irish 
branch  has  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  it'  On  the  same 
day  the  Bishop  thus  reports  Mr.  Gladstone's  opinion  on 
current  politics:  'The  operations  of  last  year  had  de- 
stroyed the  whole  power  of  Conservative  resistance.' 

On  March  30  Mr.  Gladstone  moved  his  resolutions,  in  a 
speech  of  which  the  following  was  the  eloquent  peroration  : 

There  are  many  who  think  that  to  lay  hands  upon  the 
national  Church  Establishment  of  a  country  is  a  profane  and 
unhallowed  act.  I  respect  that  feeling.  I  sympathize  with  it. 
I  sympathize  with  it  while  I  think  it  my  duty  to  overcome  and 
repress  it.  But  if  it  be  an  error,  it  is  an  error  entitled  to  re- 
spect. There  is  something  in  the  idea  of  a  national  establish- 
ment of  religion,  of  a  solemn  appropriation  of  a  part  of  the 
Commonwealthfor  conferring  upon  all  who  are  ready  to  receive 


CHURCH   DISESTABLISHMENT  20I 

it  what  we  know  to  be  an  inestimable  benefit ;  of  saving  that 
portion  of  the  inheritance  from  private  selfishness,  in  order  to 
extract  from  it,  if  we  can,  pure  and  unmixed  advantages  of  the 
highest  order  for  the  population  at  large  ;  there  is  something 
in  this  so  attractive  that  it  is  an  image  that  must  always  com- 
mand the  homage  of  the  many.  It  is  somewhat  like  the  kingly 
ghost  in  '  Hamlet,'  of  which  one  of  the  characters  of  Shakes- 
peare says : 

We  do  it  wrong,  being  so  majestical, 
To  offer  it  the  show  of  violence ; 
For  it  is,  as  the  air,  invulnerable. 
And  our  vain  blows  malicious  mockery. 

But,  sir,  this  is  to  view  a  religious  establishment  upon  one  side 
only — upon  what  I  may  call  the  ethereal  side.  It  has  like- 
wise a  side  of  earth ;  and  here  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote 
some  lines  written  by  the  present  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  at  a 
time  when  his  genius  was  devoted  to  the  muses.  He  said,  in 
speaking  of  mankind  : 

We  who  did  our  lineage  high 
Draw  from  beyond  the  starry  sky, 
Are  yet  upon  the  other  side 
To  earth  and  to  its  dust  allied. 

And  so  the  Church  Establishment,  regarded  in  its  theory 
and  in  its  aim,  is  beautiful  and  attractiv-e.  Yet  what  is  it  but 
an  appropriation  of  public  property,  an  appropriation  of  the 
fruits  of  labour  and  of  skill  to  certain  purposes,  and  unless 
these  purposes  are  fulfilled,  that  appropriation  cannot  be  jus- 
tified. Therefore,  sir,  I  cannot  but  feel  that  we  must  set 
aside  fears  which  thrust  themselves  upon  the  imagination, 
and  act  upon  the  sober  dictates  of  our  judgment.  I  think  it 
has  been  shown  that  the  cause  for  action  is  strong — not  for 
precipitate  action,  not  for  action  beyond  our  powers,  but  f'Or 
such  action  as  the  opportunities  of  the  times  and  the  condi- 
tion of  Parliament,  if  there  be  a  ready  will,  will  amply  and 
easily  admit  of.  If  I  am  asked  as  to  my  expectations  of  the 
issue  of  this  struggle,  I  begin  by  frankly  avowing  that  I,  for 


202  MR.  GLADSTONE 

one,  would  not  have  entered  into  it,  unless  I  believed  that  the 
final  hour  was  about  to  sound — 

Venit  summa  dies  et  ineluctabile  fatum. 

And  I  hope  that  the  noble  lord  will  forgive  me  if  I  say  that 
before  Friday  last  I  thought  that  the  thread  of  the  remaining 
life  of  the  Irish  Established  Church  was  short,  but  that  since 
Friday  last,  when,  at  half-past  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
the  noble  lord  stood  at  that  table,  I  have  regarded  it  as  being 
shorter  still.  The  issue  is  not  in  our  hands.  What  we  had 
and  have  to  do  is  to  consider  well  and  deeply  before  we  take 
the  first  step  in  an  engagement  such  as  this ;  but  having  en- 
tered into  the  controversy,  there  and  then  to  acquit  ourselves 
like  men,  and  to  use  every  effort  to  remove  what  still  re- 
mains of  the  scandals  and  calamities  in  the  relations  which 
exist  between  England  and  Ireland,  and  to  make  our  best 
efforts  at  least  to  fill  up  with  the  cement  of  human  concord 
the  noble  fabric  of  the  British  Empire. 

After  an  animated  debate,  marked  by  much  fine  speak- 
ing on  behalf  of  the  resolutions  and  very  little  against 
them,  Lord  Stanley's  amendment  was  lost  by  sixty- one 
votes.  When  it  came  to  the  discussion  of  the  resolutions 
in  Committee,  the  first  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  sixty- 
five  against  the  Government.  Ministerial  explanations  fol- 
lowed. Mr.  Disraeli  described,  in  his  most  pompous  vein, 
his  audiences  of  the  Queen,  and  made  an  injudiciously 
free  use  of  the  Royal  name.  Divested  of  vulgar  verbiage 
his  statement  amounted  to  this — that,  in  spite  of  adverse 
votes,  the  Ministers  intended  to  hold  on  till  the  autumn, 
and  then  to  appeal  to  the  new  electorate  created  by  the 
Reform  Act  of  the  previous  year.  Referring  to  these  Min- 
isterial statements,  Lord  Malmesbury  wrote  thus  on  May  6 : 
'Gladstone  made  a  bitter  attack  on  the  Government,  say- 
ing that  the  above-mentioned  speeches  required  further 


AN   AWKWARD   TEAM  203 

explanation  as  to  what  passed  between  Disraeli  and  the 
Queen.  Disraeli  said  the  permission  her  Majesty  gave 
him  to  dissolve  only  applied  to  the  Irish  Church  question, 
and,  if  other  difficulties  arose,  of  course  he  must  again  refer 
to  her.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  anger  of  Gladstone  at  Dis- 
raeli's elevation.  He  wanted  to  stop  the  supplies  on  Mon- 
day, the  4th,  but  found  his  party  would  not  go  with  him.' 

Lord  Houghton  writes  thus  on  May  2  :  '  Gladstone  is 
the  great  triumph  ;  but  as  he  owns  that  he  has  to  drive  a 
four-in-hand,  consisting  of  English  Liberals,  English  Dis- 
senters, Scotch  Presbyterians,  and  Irish  Catholics,  he  re- 
quires all  his  courage  to  look  the  difficulties  in  the  face, 
and  trust  to  surmount  them.' 

As  soon  as  the  resolutions  were  carried,  Mr.  Gladstone 
brought  in  a  Bill  to  prevent  for  a  time  any  fresh  appoint- 
ments in  the  Church  of  Ireland,  and  this,  though  carried 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  was  defeated  in  the  Lords. 

This  practically  ended  the  struggles  of  the  Session,  and 
Parliament  was  prorogued  on  July  31. 

On  August  20,  Lord  Shaftesbury  wrote  :  'The  Govern- 
ment is  a  compound  of  timidity  and  recklessness.  Dizzy 
is  seeking  everywhere  for  support.  He  is  all  things  to  all 
men,  and  nothing  to  anyone.  He  cannot  make  up  his 
mind  to  be  Evangelical,  Neologian,  or  Ritualistic ;  he  is 
waiting  for  the  highest  bidder.' 

Mr.  Gladstone  promptly  opened  his  electoral  campaign. 
In  the  redistribution  of  seats  consequent  on  the  Reform 
Bill,  South  Lancashire  had  been  divided  into  two  electoral 
districts.  Mr.  Gladstone  determined  to  contest  the  South- 
western division,  and  he  addressed  himself  to  the  task 
with  extraordinary  vigour.  He  spoke  in  rapid  succession 
at   St.    Helen's,   Warrington,   Liv^erpool,   Newton    Bridge, 


204  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Wigan,  and  Ormskirk,  dilating  with  all  his  fiery  eloquence 
on  the  monstrous  foolishness  of  a  religious  establishment 
which  ministered  only  to  a  handful  of  people.  The  cam- 
paign was  conducted  with  increasing  vigour  throughout  the 
autumn.  A  single  and  simple  issue  was  placed  before  the 
country  —  was  the  Irish  Church  to  be,  or  not  to  be,  dis- 
established? Parliament  was  dissolved  on  November  ii. 
The  returns  soon  showed  an  overwhelming  victory  for  the 
Liberal  cause.  Mr.  Gladstone's  seat  in  Lancashire,  where 
Protestant  feeling  runs  high,  was  considered  insecure,  and 
he  had  therefore  been  doubly  nominated.  In  Lancashire 
he  was  defeated,  Mr.  (now  Lord)  Cross  being  at  the  head 
of  the  poll ;  but  he  was  returned  for  Greenwich  by  a  sub- 
stantial majority.  He  chose  this  moment  to  publish  a 
'  Chapter  of  Autobiography,'  which  he  had  written  in  the 
previous  September,  and  in  which  he  traced  in  detail  the 
history  of  his  opinions  with  respect  to  the  Irish  Church, 

On  November  20,  Bishop  Wilberforce  wrote  to  his 
friend  Dr.  Trench,  Archbishop  of  Dublin:  'The  returns 
to  the  House  of  Commons  leave  no  doubt  of  the  answer 
of  the  country  to  Gladstone's  appeal.  In  a  few  weeks  he 
will  be  in  office  at  the  head  of  a  majority  of  something 
like  a  hundred,  elected  on  the  distinct  issue  of  Gladstone 
and  the  Irish  Church.' 

On  December  2,  Mr.  Disraeli  announced  that  he  and 
his  colleagues,  by  a  commendable  innovation  on  existing 
practice,  had  resigned  their  offices  without  waiting  for  a 
formal  vote  of  the  new  Parliament.  On  the  following  day 
Mr.  Gladstone  was  summoned  to  Windsor,  and  was  com- 
manded by  the  Queen  to  form  an  Administration.  He 
had  now  reached  the  highest  summit  of  political  ambition. 
All  the  industry  and  self-denial  of  a  laborious  hfe,  all  the 


PRIME   MINISTER  205 

anxieties  and  burdens  and  battles  of  a  five-and-thirty-years' 
parliamentary  struggle,  were  crowned  by  their  supreme  and 
adequate  reward. 

On  December  9,  the  new  Ministers  received  the  Seals, 
Mr.  Bright  taking  office  for  the  first  time  as  President  of 
the  Board  of  Trade.  On  the  loth,  the  new  Parliament  was 
opened  by  a  Royal  Commission.  On  the  nth,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Gladstone  paid  a  visit  to  Lord  and  Lady  Salisbury  at 
Hatfield,  where  the  ubiquitous  Bishop  Wilberforce  (whom 
Mr.  Disraeli  had  just  passed  over  for  the  sees  of  Canter- 
bury and  London)  had  an  opportunity  of  observing  his  old 
and  honoured  friend  in  the  first  flush  of  his  new  dignity. 
Here  are  his  comments  :  'Gladstone,  as  ever,  great,  earnest, 
and  honest ;  as  unlike  the  tricky  Disraeli  as  possible.' 

I  have  very  much  enjoyed  meeting  Gladstone.  He  is  so 
delightfully  true  and  the  same  ;  just  as  full  of  interest  in  every 
good  thing  of  every  kind,  and  so  exactly  the  opposite  of  the 
Mystery  Man.  .  .  .  When  people  talk  of  Gladstone  going  mad, 
they  do  not  take  into  account  the  wonderful  elasticity  of 
his  mind  and  the  variety  of  his  interests.  Now,  this  morn- 
ing (I  am  writing  in  the  train  on  my  way  to  London)  after 
breakfast,  he  and  Salisbury,  and  I  and  Cardwell,  had  a  walk 
round  this  beautiful  park,  and  he  was  just  as  much  interested 
in  the  size  of  the  oaks,  their  probable  age,  &c.,  as  if  no  care  of 
State  ever  pressed  upon  him.  This  is  his  safeguard,  joined 
to  entire  rectitude  of  purpose  and  clearness  of  view.  He  is 
now  writing  opposite  to  me  in  the  railway  carriage  on  his  way 
to  Windsor  Castle. 


I  enjoyed  meeting  Gladstone  again  very  much.  In  pres- 
ence he  always  impresses  me,  as  I  know  he  does  you,  with  the 
sense  of  his  perfect  honesty  and  noble  principles.  I  never 
saw  him  pleasanter,  calmer,  or  more  ready  to  enter  freely  into 
everything.  .  .  .  He  remarked  to  me  on  the  great  power  of 


206  MR.  GLADSTONE 

charming  and  pleasant  host-ing  possessed  by  Salisbury.  All 
that  he  did  say  on  public  affairs  was  what  we  could  wish, 
barring  the  one  subject  of  the  Irish  Church.  I  think  that  he 
will  hold  his  own.  I  do  not  believe  in  tlie  excitement  and 
temper,  &c.,  which  people  talk  about.  He  is  far  more  in  ear- 
nest than  most  people,  and  therefore  they  revenge  themselves 
by  saying  that  he  loses  his  temper. 

On  December  30,  the  Bisnop  wrote  thus  to  Dr.  Trench, 
Archbishop  of  Dublin : 

You  say  that  the  time  for  offering  any  terms  of  compro- 
mise is  not  come :  that  it  will  be  well  to  let  Gladstone  taste 
the  various  difficulties  which  beset  the  carrying-out  of  his 
measure,  and  then,  when  he  has  experienced  their  weight,  to 
offer  him  terms.  Now,  this  would  be  fine  if  you  were  dealing 
with  a  minority,  guided  by  a  master  of  selfish  cunning  and 
unprincipled  trickery.  Doubtless  it  would  be  the  wise  way 
to  meet  a  mere  Mystery  Man  like  Disraeli,  who  was  trading 
upon  the  principles  and  ultimate  existence  of  an  honourable 
minority,  and  had  no  real  principle,  but  was  ready  to  catch  at 
any  cry  to  gain  a  respite  from  defeat,  and  was  ready,  in  order 
to  avoid  a  difficulty  he  could  not  meet,  to  sacrifice  any  man, 
party,  purpose,  principle,  or  Church  —  it  would  doubtless  be 
best  to  let  him  entangle  himself  in  his  own  web,  and  then 
make  his  sacrifice  of  everything  for  which  he  had  professed 
to  act  the  price  of  his  extrication  from  his  trouble.  But  your 
case  is  altogether  different.  You  have  in  Gladstone  a  man  of 
the  highest  and  noblest  principle,  who  has  shown  unmistak- 
ably that  he  is  ready  to  sacrifice  every  personal  aim  for  what 
he  has  set  before  himself  as  a  high  object.  He  is  supported, 
not  by  a  minority  conscious  of  being  a  minority,  but  by  a 
great  and  confident  majority.  The  decision  of  the  constitu- 
encies seems  to  me  incapable  of  misapprehension  or  reversal. 
Has  there  ever  yet  been  any  measure,  however  opposed,  which 
the  English  people  have  been  unable  for  its  'difficulty'  to  car- 
ry through,  when  they  have  determined  to  do  so?  Look  at 
negro  slavery,  protection,  parliamentary  reform,  and  a  hun- 
dred other  questions.     They  have  resolved  to  carry  your  dis- 


'SOUND   AND   fury'  20/ 

establishment,  and  they  know  that  they  can  and  will  carry  it. 
Now,  what  is  gained  by  opposing  and  chafing  such  a  body  ? 
You  may  frighten  away  a  fox  by  an  outcry ;  but  you  only 
wake  up  the  strength  and  fury  of  the  lion.  ...  I  therefore  once 
more  implore  you  to  consider  whether  the  time  is  not  come 
for  you  to  say,  'The  nation  has  decided  against  one  Estab- 
lishment, and  we  bow  to  its  decision.  The  question  of  what 
part  of  our  income  is  to  be  left  to  us,  and  on  what  tenure  and 
conditions  it  is  to  be  held,  remains  confessedly  open.  We 
are  ready  to  enter  on  it,  and  if  what  we  must  deem  still  our 
just  rights  are  provided  for,  and  we  are  honourably  and  wisely 
started  on  our  new  career,  we  shall  do  our  best  to  aid  in  the 
settlement  of  a  very  difficult  matter.'  ...  I  should  have  great 
hopes,  knowing  the  nobleness  of  him  with  whom  as  chief  you 
have  to  deal,  of  a  tolerably  satisfactory  result  following  imme- 
diate action  on  your  parts  in  this  direction. 

But  this  sagacious  and  statesmanlike  counsel  was  dis- 
regarded. The  Irish  Bishops  ranged  themselves  in  bitter 
but  futile  hostility  to  the  Bill.  A  frantic  outbreak  of  Prot- 
estant violence  began  in  Ireland  and  spread  to  England. 
The  bulk  of  the  Tory  party,  and  a  large  proportion  (though 
by  no  means  the  whole  or  the  best  part)  of  the  English 
clergy  joined  the  din.  Noble  lords  and  right  reverend 
prelates  vied  with  one  another  in  rhetorical  extravagances. 
The  Orangemen,  as  usual,  distinguished  themselves  by  the 
indecency  of  their  language  and  the  brutality  of  their  idle 
threats  ;  and  some  calmer  spirits,  who  dreaded  attacks  on 
property  and  the  unsettlement  of  institutions,  were  seri- 
ously perturbed.  Bishop  Wilberforce  notes  this  conversa- 
tion at  Windsor  Castle:  'The  Queen  very  affable.  "So 
sorry  Mr.  Gladstone  started  this  about  the  Irish  Church, 
and  he  is  a  great  friend  of  yours." '  On  February  i6,  Par- 
liament was  opened  by  Commission.  In  the  Speech  from 
the  Throne  it  was  announced  that  '  the  ecclesiastical  ar- 


% 


208  MR.  GLADSTONE 

rangements  of  Ireland '  would  be  brought  under  the  con- 
sideration of  Parliament  at  a  very  early  date.  On  the 
same  evening  Bishop  Wilberforce  notes  :  '  Gladstone's  first 
speech  as  Prime  Minister.  Calm,  moderate,  and  kindly. 
Disraeli  constrained  siio  more.' 

On  March  i,  1869,  Mr.  Gladstone  introduced  this  mo- 
mentous Bill.  His  speech  lasted  three  hours,  but  con- 
tained, even  his  enemies  being  judges,  not  one  superfluous 
word.  It  was  proposed  that  on  January  i,  187 1,  the  Irish 
Church  should  cease  to  exist  as  an  establishment  and 
should  become  a  Free  Church.  The  Irish  Bishops  were 
to  lose  their  seats  in  Parliament.  A  Synod,  or  govern- 
ing body,  was  to  be  elected  from  the  clergy  and  laity  of 
the  Irish  Church,  and  was  made  a  corporation  capable  of 
holding  property  and  performing  other  public  acts.  The 
union  between  the  English  and  Irish  Churches  was  to  be 
dissolved,  the  ecclesiastical  courts  abolished,  and  the  ec- 
clesiastical law  retained  only  as  the  rule  of  the  Church 
till  altered  by  the  governing  body.  All  vested  interests 
were  to  receive  ample — if,  indeed,  it  was  not  excessive — 
compensation.  When  they  were  disposed  of,  out  of  the 
property  of  the  disestablished  Church,  there  would  re- 
main a  surplus  estimated  at  some  nine  millions,  and  this 
was  to  be  devoted  to  the  relief  of  unavoidable  calamity 
and  suffering. 

I  do  not  know  in  what  country  so  great  a  change,  so  great 
a  transition,  has  been  proposed  for  the  ministers  of  a  religious 
communion  who  have  enjoyed  for  many  ages  the  preferred 
position  of  an  Established  Church.  I  can  well  understand 
that  to  many  in  the  Irish  Establishment  such  a  change  ap- 
pears to  be  nothing  less  than  ruin  and  destruction  ;  from  the 
height  on  which  they  now  stand  the  future  is  to  them  an 


AN   IMPRESSIVE   PERORATION  209 

abyss,  and  their  fears  recall  the  words  used  in  '  King  Lear,' 
when  Edgar  endeavours  to  persuade  Glo'ster  that  he  has  fall- 
en over  the  cliffs  of  Dover,  and  says  : 

Ten  masts  at  each  make  not  the  altitude 
Which  thou  hast  perpendicularly  fallen ; 
Thy  life's  a  miracle  ! 

And  yet  but  a  little  while  after  the  old  man  is  relieved  from 
his  delusion,  and  finds  he  has  not  fallen  at  all.  So  I  trust 
that  when,  instead  of  the  fictitious  and  adventitious  aid  on 
which  we  have  too  long  taught  the  Irish  Establishment  to 
lean,  it  should  come  to  place  its  trust  in  its  own  resources,  in  its 
own  great  mission,  in  all  that  it  can  draw  from  the  energy  of 
its  ministers  and  its  members,  and  the  high  hopes  and  prom- 
ises of  the  Gospel  that  it  teaches,  it  v^^ill  find  that  it  has  en- 
tered upon  a  new  era  of  existence— an  era  bright  with  hope 
and  potent  for  good.  At  any  rate,  I  think  the  day  has  cer- 
tainly come  when  an  end  is  finally  to  be  put  to  that  union,  not 
between  the  Church  and  religious  association,  but  between 
the  Establishment  and  the  State,  which  was  commenced  un- 
der circumstances  little  auspicious,  and  has  endured  to  be  a 
source  of  unhappiness  to  Ireland  and  of  discredit  and  scandal 
to  England.  There  is  more  to  say.  This  measure  is  in  every 
sense  a  great  measure  —  great  in  its  principles,  great  in  the 
multitude  of  its  dry,  technical,  but  interesting  detail,  and  great 
as  a  testing  measure  ;  for  it  will  show  for  one  and  all  of  us  of 
what  metal  we  are  made.  Upon  us  all  it  brings  a  great  re- 
sponsibility— great  and  foremost  upon  those  who  occupy  this 
bench.  We  are  especially  chargeable — nay,  deeply  guilty—if 
we  have  either  dishonestly,  as  some  think,  or  even  prematurely 
or  unwisely  challenged  so  gigantic  an  issue.  I  know  well  the 
punishments  that  follow  rashness  in  public  affairs,  and  that 
ought  to  fall  upon  those  men,  those  Phaetons  of  politics,  who, 
with  hands  unequal  to  the  task,  attempt  to  guide  the  chariot 
of  the  sun.  But  the  responsibility,  though  heavy,  does  not  ex- 
clusively press  upon  us ;  it  presses  upon  every  man  who  has 
to  take  part  in  the  discussion  and  decision  upon  this  Bill. 
Every  man  approaches  the  discussion  under  the  most  solemn 
14 


2IO  MR.  GLADSTONE 

obligations  to  raise  the  level  of  his  vision  and  expand  its  scope 
in  proportion  with  the  greatness  of  the  matter  in  hand.  The 
working  of  our  constitutional  government  itself  is  upon  its 
trial,  for  I  do  not  believe  there  ever  was  a  time  when  the 
wheels  of  legislative  machinery  were  set  in  motion,  under  con- 
ditions of  peace  and  order  and  constitutional  regularity,  to 
deal  with  a  question  greater  or  more  profound.  And  more 
especially,  sir,  is  the  credit  and  fame  of  this  great  assembly  in- 
volved ;  this  assembly,  which  has  inherited  through  many  ages 
the  accumulated  honours  of  brilliant  triumphs,  of  peaceful 
but  courageous  legislation,  is  now  called  upon  to  address  itself 
to  a  task  which  would,  indeed,  have  demanded  all  the  best  en- 
ergies of  the  very  best  among  your  fathers  and  your  ancestors. 
I  believe  it  will  prove  to  be  worthy  of  the  task.  Should  it 
fail,  even  the  fame  of  the  House  of  Commons  will  suffer  dis- 
paragement ;  should  it  succeed,  even  that  fame,  I  venture  to 
say,  will  receive  no  small,  no  insensible  addition.  I  must  not 
ask  gentlemen  opposite  to  concur  in  this  view,  emboldened  as 
I  am  by  the  kindness  they  have  shown  me  in  listening  with 
patience  to  a  statement  which  could  not  have  been  other  than 
tedious;  but  I  pray  them  to  bear  with  me  for  a  moment 
while,  for  myself  and  my  colleagues,  I  say  we  are  sanguine  of 
the  issue.  We  believe,  and  for  my  part  I  am  deeply  con- 
vinced, that  when  the  final  consummation  shall  arrive,  and 
when  the  words  are  spoken  that  shall  give  the  force  of  law  to 
the  work  embodied  in  this  measure — the  work  of  peace  and 
justice — those  words  will  be  echoed  upon  every  shore  where 
the  name  of  Ireland  or  the  name  of  Great  Britain  has  been 
heard,  and  the  answer  to  them  will  come  back  in  the  approv- 
ing verdict  of  civilized  mankind. 

The  Bill  was  supported  by  Mr.  Bright  in  a  speech  of 
infinite  beauty  and  pathos,  and  his  solemn  peroration  is 
one  of  the  finest  of  his  recorded  utterances.  Mr.  Lowe 
attacked  the  Irish  Church  with  characteristic  bitterness ; 
and  the  Solicitor-General,  Sir  John  Coleridge  (now  Lord 
Chief  Justice  of  England),  justified  its  destruction  in  an 


AN   ACT   OF  JUSTICE  211 

oration  so  eloquent  and  so  persuasive  that  it  might  ahnost 
have  reconciled  an  Irish  Bishop  to  his  own  extinction. 
Mr.  Disraeli  opposed  the  Bill  in  a  speech  which,  as  was 
said  at  the  time,  was,  like  a  columbine's  skirt,  all  flimsiness 
and  spangles,  and  Mr.  Gathorne  Hardy  (now  Lord  Cran- 
brook),  who  really  thought  the  proposal  of  the  Government 
wicked,  thundered  against  it  with  impressive  vehemence. 
Sir  Roundell  Palmer  (now  Lord  Selborne),  who  refused  to 
join  a  Government  which  contemplated  disendowment,  drew 
refined  distinctions,  and  contrived  to  appear  for  and  against 
the  Bill  at  the  same  time.  But  none  of  these  rhetorical 
exercises  mattered  much.  The  Irish  Establishment  was 
doomed.  The  second  reading  was  carried  by  a  majority  of 
ii8.  The  Bill  passed  practically  unaltered  through  Com- 
mittee. Even  the  Lords  were  too  prudent  to  resist  the  Gov- 
ernment, though  urged  thereto  by  the  inflammatory  rheto- 
ric of  the  present  Archbishop  of  York,  who  in  the  previous 
winter  had  declared  that  the  Church  had  everything  to 
lose  and  nothing  to  gain  by  prolonging  a  hopeless  contest. 
Lord  Salisbury,  and  some  other  Tories  who  were  also  High 
Churchmen,  voted  for  the  Bill,  which  passed  the  second 
reading ;  but  in  Committee  a  variety  of  enfeebling  amend- 
ments were  carried  against  the  Government.  For  a  mo- 
ment there  seemed  some  risk  of  serious  conflict  between 
the  two  Houses.  There  were  rumours  that  Mr.  Gladstone, 
if  beaten,  would  resign.  But  Mr.  Bright,  in  a  letter  to 
Birmingham,  gave  the  Lords  an  emphatic  warning  of  what 
might  happen  if  they  persevered  in  a  course  of  arrogant 
obstinacy,  and,  like  prudent  men  and  true  Britons,  they 
hastily  betook  themselves  to  the  safe  haven  of  compro- 
mise. The  Bill,  not  altered  in  a  single  important  feature, 
received  the  Royal  Assent  on  July  26,  1869. 


212  MR.  GLADSTONE 


CHAPTER   IX 

The  Irish  Land  Act — The  abolition  of  Purchase — The  '  Alabama ' 
claims — Disaffection  at  Greenwich — Waning  popularity — Dissolu- 
tion— Defeat — Resignation — Retirement  from  leadership — Theo- 
logical controversy. 

*  I  HAVE  not  any  misgivings  about  Gladstone  personally. 
But,  as  leader  of  the  party  to  which  the  folly  of  the  Con- 
servatives and  the  selfish  treachery  of  Disraeli  bit  by  bit 
allied  him,  he  cannot  do  what  he  would,  and,  with  all  his 
vast  powers,  there  is  a  want  of  sharp-sighted  clearness  as 
to  others.  But  God  rules.  I  do  not  see  how  we  are,  after 
Disraeli's  Reform  Bill,  long  to  avoid  fundamental  changes 
both  in  Church  and  State.'  The  friend  who,  writing  on 
August  3,  1869,  thus  expressed  his  uneasy  sense  of  im- 
pending change,  soon  found  his  expectations  verified  by 
results. 

These  were  golden  days  for  the  Liberal  party.  They 
were  united,  enthusiastic,  victorious,  full  of  energy,  con- 
fidence, and  hope.  Great  works  of  necessary  reform,  too 
long  delayed,  lay  before  them,  and  they  were  led  by  a 
band  of  men  as  distinguished  as  had  ever  filled  the  chief 
places  of  the  State.  At  their  head  was  a  statesman  who, 
by  his  rare  combination  of  high  principle,  passionate  ear- 
nestness, and  practical  skill,  was  beyond  any  other  quali- 
fied to  inspire,  to  attract,  and  to  lead.     He  had  now  car- 


TENANT-RIGHT  213 

ried  to  a  successful  issue  his  first  great  act  of  constructive 
legislation — for  the  erection  of  the  Irish  Church  into  a 
voluntary  body  with  self-governing  powers  was  at  least  as 
much  a  constructive  as  a  destructive  act — and  his  impetu- 
ous spirit  was  already  seeking  fresh  w^orlds  to  conquer. 

The  Session  of  1870  was  devoted  to  two  great  meas- 
ures which  ran  concurrently  through  Parliament.  The 
one  was  the  Irish  Land  Bill,  the  other  the  English  Educa- 
tion Bill.  /  In  his  electioneering  campaign  Mr.  Gladstone 
had  declared  that  Ireland  was  shadowed  and  blighted  by 
an  upas-tree,  and  that  this  tree  had  three  main  branches — 
the  Established  Church,  the  system  of  land  tenure,  and 
the  system  of  public  education.  One  of  these  he  hewed 
down  in  1869 ;  to  the  second  he  addressed  himself  in 
1870.  He  introduced  his  Land  Bill  on  February  15.  A 
custom  had  long  existed  in  Ulster  which  recognized  a 
certain  property  or  partnership  of  the  tenant  in  the  land 
which  he  cultivated.  He  could  not  be  evicted  as  long  as 
he  paid  his  rent,  and  he  was  entitled  to  sell  the  goodwill 
of  his  farm  for  what  it  would  fetch  in  the  market.  This 
was  familiarly  called  'tenant-right.'  When  agrarian  re- 
formers had  urged  its  extension  as  a  method  of  allaying 
Irish  discontent.  Lord  Palmerston  had  said  that  'tenant- 
right  was  landlord's  wrong,'  and  this  imbecile  jest  had 
been  meekly  accepted  as  closing  the  controversy.  But  Mr. 
Gladstone  now  proposed  to  make  this  tenant-right  a  legal 
institution,  and  where  it  did  not  exist  he  threw  upon  the 
landlord  the  burden  of  proving  that  he  had  a  right  to  evict. 
This  reversed  the  existing  condition,  in  which,  except  in 
Ulster,  the  Irish  tenantry  were  tenants  at  will.  A  legal 
machinery  was  created  by  which  the  circvunstances  of  any 
tenant  whose  landlord  sought  to  evict  him  might  be  en- 


214 


MR.  GLADSTONE 


quired  into,  and  justice  secured  him.  In  brief,  the  object 
of  the  Bill  was  to  protect  the  tenant  against  eviction  as 
long  as  he  paid  his  rent,  and  to  secure  to  him  the  value  of 
any  improvements  which  his  own  industry  had  made. 
Mr.  Gladstone  regarded  the  Bill  as  pertaining  '  not  so 
much  to  the  well-being  as  to  the  being  of  civilized  society  ; 
for  the  existence  of  society  can  hardly  be  such  as  to  de- 
serve that  name  until  the  conditions  of  peace  and  order, 
and  of  mutual  goodwill  and  confidence,  shall  have  been 
more  firmly  established  in  Ireland.' 

The  Bill  passed,  with  much  protest  indeed,  but  with  no 
serious  challenge,  into  law,  and  received  the  Royal  Assent 
on  August  I. 

Simultaneously,  the  Government,  by  the  hand  of  Mr. 
Forster,  established  for  the  first  time  a  national  and  com- 
pulsory system  of  elementary  education.  We  need  not 
stay  to  trace  the  progress  of  this  measure,  because  Mr. 
Gladstone's  personal  relations  with  it  were  slight.  But  it 
is  important  to  note  that  the  concessions  made  during  its 
course  to  the  convictions  of  Tories  and  Churchmen,  in  the 
matter  of  religious  education,  stirred  the  bitter  and  abiding 
wrath  of  the  political  Dissenters. 

On  May  26  Lord  Shaftesbury,  whose  strong  feelings 
misled  him  as  to  the  views  of  the  Nonconformists,  wrote  in 
his  diary :  '  Deputation  to  Gladstone  about  education.  The 
unanimity  of  the  Churchmen  and  Dissenters — that  is,  the 
vast  majority  of  them — is  striking  and  consolatory.  Glad- 
stone could  now  settle  the  question  by  a  single  word.  But 
he  will  not.  He  would  rather,  it  is  manifest,  exclude  the 
Bible  altogether  than  have  it  admitted  and  taught  without 
the  intervention  and  agency  of  catechisms  and  formula- 
ries.' 


EDUCATION    AND    RELIGION  21$ 

The  following  letter  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  is  interesting 
and  instructive  : — 

June  17,  1870. — My  dear  Shaftesbury, — I  was  not  at  liberty 
on  Wednesday  to  speak  to  you  otherwise  than  in  very  general 
terms  on  the  intentions  of  the  Government  respecting  the 
Education  Bill.  We  have  now  taken  our  stand  ;  and  I  write 
to  say  how  ready  I  shall  be  to  communicate  with  you  freely  in 
regard  to  the  prospects  and  provisions  of  the  measure.  I  can 
the  better  make  this  tender  because  the  plan  we  have  adopted 
is  by  no  nieatts,  in  all  its  main  particulars,  the  one  most  agreeable 
to  my  individual  predilections.  But  I  have  given  it  a  deliberate 
assent,  as  a  measure  due  to  the  desires  and  convictions  of  the 
country,  and  as  one  rendering  much  honour  and  scope  to  re- 
ligion, without  giving  fair  ground  of  objection  to  those  who 
are  so  fearful  that  the  State  should  become  entangled  in  theo- 
logical controversy.  Energetic  objection  will,  I  have  some 
fear,  be  taken  in  some  quarters  to  our  proposals  ;  but  I  believe 
they  will  be  generally  satisfactory  to  men  of  moderation.  Pray 
understand  that  the  willingness  I  have  expressed  is  not  meant 
to  convey  any  request,  but  only  to  be  turned  to  account  if  you 
find  it  useful.— Believe  me,  sincerely  yours, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 

The  '  energetic  objection  '  which  Mr.  Gladstone  foresaw 
was  duly  taken,  and  drew  him  into  a  sharp  passage  of  arms 
with  that  stern  champion  of  parliamentary  nonconformity, 
the  late  Mr.  Edward  Miall.  Mr.  Gladstone  told  him  frankly 
that  he  was  too  exacting — that  he  looked  too  much  to  the 
section  of  the  community  which  he  adorned,  and  too  little 
to  the  interests  of  the  people  at  large.  '  We,'  concluded 
Mr.  Gladstone,  '  are  the  Government  of  the  Queen,  and 
those  who  have  assumed  the  high  responsibility  of  admin- 
istering the  affairs  of  this  Empire  must  endeavour  to  for- 
get the  parts  in  the  whole,  and  must,  in  the  great  meas- 
ures they  introduce  into  the  House,  propose  to  themselves 


2l6  MR.  GLADSTONE 

no  meaner  or  narrower  object  than  the  welfare  of  the  Em- 
pire at  large.'  The  answer  of  the  Nonconformists  to  this 
proud  vaunt — an  emphatic  and  an  unpleasant  answer — 
was  given  in  the  general  election  of  1874,  and  helped  to 
make  '  the  Government  of  the  Queen,'  a  term  of  very  dif- 
ferent import. 

On  June  27,  1870,  Lord  Clarendon  died,  and  Lord 
Granville  succeeded  him  as  Foreign  Secretary.  He  en- 
tered on  his  duties  at  the  Foreign  Office  July  5,  and  was 
informed  by  the  experienced  Under-Secretary  that  he  had 
never  known  so  profound  a  lull  in  foreign  affairs.  Ten 
days  later  France  and  Germany  were  at  war.  Into  the 
history  of  that  memorable  campaign  there  is,  happily,  no 
need  for  us  to  enter.  Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  colleagues 
were  true  to  the  sacred  principle  of  non-intervention,  and 
held  firmly  to  their  purpose  of  neutrality,  in  spite  of  po- 
litical pressure,  furious  partisanship,  and  diplomatic  allure- 
ments.. On  July  27,  Mr.  Gladstone  wrote  to  a  friend  :  'It 
is  not  for  me  to  distribute  praise  and  blame ;  but  I  think 
the  war  as  a  whole,  and  the  state  of  things  out  of  which  it 
has  grown,  deserve  a  severer  condemnation  than  any  which 
the  nineteenth  century  has  exhibited  since  the  peace  of 
1815.'  On  September  28,  Bishop  Wilberforce  writes: 
'  Sat  some  time  with  Gladstone.  Full  as  ever  of  intellect 
and  interest  on  all  subjects.  France  and  Prussia :  hoping 
that  iox.  the  present  great  sacrifice  of  life  over.' 

In  October  Mr.  Gladstone  published  in  the  '  Edinburgh 
Review'  an  article  on  'Germany,  France,  and  England,' 
in  which  he  distributed  blame  with  great  impartiality  be- 
tween both  belligerent  Powers.  The  fact  is  interesting 
because  he  has  since  told  us  that  this  (which  contains  the 
famous  phrase  'the  streak  of  silver  sea')  was  the  only  ar- 


THE   ARDOUR   OF   REFORM  217 

tide  ever  written  by  him  which  was  meant,  for  the  time,  to 
be,  in  substance  as  well  as  in  form,  anonymous.  Its  au- 
thorship was  disclosed  by  the  '  Daily  News  '  on  Novem- 
ber 3. 

Turning  for  a  moment  from  foreign  to  ecclesiastical 
affairs,  we  note  that  in  the  summer  of  1870,  Dean  Stanley 
invited  the  company  of  divines  appointed  to  revise  the 
English  translation  of  the  Bible  to  open  their  proceedings 
by  receiving  the  Holy  Communion  in  King  Henry  VH.'s 
Chapel ;  and  a  Unitarian  minister  who  was  a  member  of 
the  company  was  admitted  to  communion  with  the  rest. 
The  incident  created  great  searchings  of  heart  among  or- 
thodox Churchmen,  and  Mr.  Gladstone's  views  of  it  are 
worth  recording.  'Talked  of  "Westminster  Scandal" — 
the  "right  name."  Of  little  import  when  merely  Stanley's 
eccentricity ;  but  the  Bishops'  speeches,  especially  Bishop 
of  Salisbury's.  "  How  difficult  with  temper  of  House  of 
Commons  to  maintain  Church,  if  such  the  internal  voice  ! 
No  organic  change  will  be  made  whilst  I  am  in  power. 
But  that  may  be  a  short  time."  ' 

On  December  16,  Mr.  Gladstone,  yielding  to  pertina- 
cious pressure,  announced  the  release  of  the  Fenian  pris- 
oners, on  the  condition  that  they  should  not  remain  in  or 
return  to  England.  In  his  second  Administration  he  tasted 
the  fruits  of  this  clemency,  y 

In  the  Session  of  187 1  the  ardour  of  reform  was  still 
unabated,  Mr.  Gladstone  repealed  the  ridiculous  Eccle- 
siastical Titles  Bill  which,  twenty  years  before.  Lord  Rus- 
sell had  passed  in  a  moment  of  Protestant  panic.  He 
abolished  religious  tests  in  the  universities.  He  carried 
through  the  House  of  Commons,  in  spite  of  some  rudi- 
mentary forms  of  that  obstruction  which  has  since  been 


2l8  MR.  GLADSTONE 

developed  into  a  fine  art,  a  Bill  to  establish  secret  voting. 
This  was  thrown  out  by  the  Lords,  but  became  law  a  year 
later. 

It  is  highly  characteristic  of  the  Premier's  versatile  in- 
telligence, and  of  his  pov/er  of  rapidly  turning  his  mind 
from  one  theme  to  another,  that,  at  the  very  hottest  mo- 
ment of  the  battle  for  the  ballot,  Bishop  VVilberforce  notes, 
on  June  22  :  'Breakfast  Gladstone,  who  unusually  bright; 
Italy,  &c.,  &c.' 

Emboldened  by  their  success  in  the  matter  of  the  bal- 
lot, the  Lords  plucked  up  courage  to  throw  out  a  Bill  to 
abolish  the  purchase  of  commissions  in  the  army,  which 
formed  part  of  Mr.  Cardwell's  general  system  of  military 
reorganization. 

This  performance  of  the  Peers  was  the  signal  for  a  de- 
cisive and  even  startling  act  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Gladstone. 
Having  failed  to  attain  his  object  by  the  consent  of  Par- 
liament, he  dispensed  with  that  consent,  and  effected  his 
purpose  by  his  single-handed  act.  Purchase  in  the  army, 
he  found,  existed  only  by  royal  sanction.  He  advised  the 
Queen  to  issue  a  Royal  Warrant  declaring  that,  on  and 
after  November  i  following,  all  regulations  authorizing  the 
purchase  of  commissions  should  be  cancelled.  Purchase 
in  the  army  was  thus  abolished  by  the  single  will  of  the 
Prime  Minister,  acting  through  the  royal  prerogative.  This 
high-handed  act  of  executive  authority  was  received  with 
general  disapproval.  The  Tories  and  the  Peers,  of  course, 
were  beside  themselves  with  baffled  rage;  but  even  devout 
Gladstonians  were  dismayed.  Sturdy  Radicals  were  un- 
sparing in  their  condemnation  ;  and  the  venerable  Lord 
Russell,  though  he  approved  of  the  reform,  gravely  de- 
nounced the  conduct  of  a  Minister  who  invoked  the  royal 


THE   'ALABAMA'  219 

prerogative  to  override  the  will  of  one  of  the  Houses  of 
Parliament. 

But  Mr.  Gladstone's  friends  and  admirers  had  a  more 
agreeable  subject  for  contemplation  in  his  dealings  with 
America.  His  passionate  love  of  peace  and  his  sense  of 
its  value  as  the  greatest  of  human  blessings  were  nobly 
illustrated  in  the  transactions  of  this  year.  The  United 
States  had  a  just  quarrel  with  us.  Five  privateers  which, 
during  the  Civil  War,  had  done  a  vast  deal  of  damage  to 
the  navy  and  commerce  of  the  Union,  were  built  in  Eng- 
lish dockyards.  The  most  famous  of  them  was  the  Ala- 
bama. She  captured  seventy  Northern  vessels.  She  was 
manned  by  an  English  crew.  Some  of  her  gunners  be- 
longed to  the  Naval  Reserve  and  received  English  pay. 
She  left  port  under  the  British  flag.  What  made  all  this 
infinitely  worse  was  that,  while  the  Alabama  was  building, 
the  American  Minister  warned  the  English  Government  of 
the  use  to  which  she  was  to  be  put ;  and  the  English  Gov- 
ernment, hide-bound  in  official  pedantry,  and  paralyzed  by 
infirmity  of  purpose,  let  the  Alabama  get  out  to  sea  and 
begin  her  two  years'  cruise  of  piracy  and  devastation. 
This  deplorable  incident,  and  others  like  it,  gave  rise  to  a 
diplomatic  correspondence  which  dragged  on  for  years. 
At  first  the  English  Government  declined  to  admit  any  re- 
sponsibility for  the  losses  inflicted  by  the  English -built 
cruiser.  Then  Lord  Stanley  (now  Lord  Derby),  more  pru- 
dent than  his  Whig  predecessors,  began  to  talk  of  arbitra- 
tion. Then  Lord  Clarendon,  advancing  from  talk  into 
action,  agreed  to  a  pettifogging  convention,  which  the  Sen- 
ate of  the  United  States  refused  to  ratify.  Then,  warned 
by  this  failure  and  by  some  ominous  words  addressed  by 
the  American  President  to  Congress,  England  agreed  to 


220  MR.  GLADSTONE 

send  a  Commission  to  Washington,  to  confer  with  an 
American  Commission  on  all  matters  in  dispute  between 
the  two  countries.  Mr.  Gladstone  wisely  included  in  the 
Commission  a  prominent  Conservative  statesman,  Sir  Staf- 
ford Northcote.  The  Commission  of  the  two  countries 
soon  agreed  to  the  Treaty  of  Washington  ;  England  unre- 
servedly expressed  regret  for  the  escape  of  the  Aiaba?na 
from  the  British  port,  and  a  board  of  arbitration  was  ar- 
ranged. How  that  board  sat  at  Geneva,  and  decided 
against  England,  we  all  remember.  The  incident  is  only 
recalled  because,  on  the  one  hand,  it  did  much  to  under- 
mine Mr.  Gladstone's  popularity  with  the  bellicose  portion 
of  the  British  public ;  and  because,  on  the  other,  it  cement- 
ed his  hold  on  the  confidence  and  regard  of  those  who  con- 
cur in  the  sentiments  which  he  expressed  in  the  House  of 
Commons  on  June  i6,  1880,  when  the  late  Mr.  Henry  Rich- 
ard moved  a  resolution,  requiring  the  Government  to  urge 
a  'simultaneous  reduction  of  armaments'  on  all  the  Powers 
of  Europe  : 

There  is  a  third  way,  however,  in  which  I  tbink  it  is  in  the 
power  of  the  Government  to  qualify  itself  for  becoming  a  mis- 
sionary for  those  beneficial  purposes  which  are  contemplated 
by  my  hon.  friend — that  is,  by  showing  their  disposition,  when 
they  are  themselves  engaged  in  controversy,  to  adopt  these 
amicable  and  pacific  means  of  escape  from  their  disputes, 
rather  than  to  resort  to  war.  Need  I  assure  my  hon.  friend 
and  my  right  hon.  friend  behind  me  (Mr.  Baxter)  that  the  dis- 
positions which  led  us  to  become  parties  to  the  arbitration  on 
the  Alabama  case  are  still  with  us  the  same  as  ever ;  that  we 
are  not  discouraged ;  that  we  are  not  damped  in  the  exercise 
of  these  feelings  by  the  fact  that  we  were  amerced,  and  severely 
amerced,  by  the  sentence  of  the  international  tribunal ;  and 
that,  although  we  may  think  the  sentence  was  harsh  in  its 
extent  and  unjust  in  its  basis,  we  regard  the  fine  imposed  on 


NO  HOME   RULE  221 

this  country  as  dust  in  the  balance  compared  with  the  moral 
value  of  the  example  set  when  these  two  great  nations  of 
England  and  America,  which  are  among  the  most  fiery  and  the 
most  jealous  in  the  world  with  regard  to  anything  that  touches 
national  honour,  went  in  peace  and  concord  before  a  judicial 
tribunal  to  dispose  of  these  painful  differences,  rather  than 
resort  to  the  arbitrament  of  the  sword. 

The  remainder  of  the  year  187 1  was  signalized  by  some 
public  appearances  of  Mr.  Gladstone  which  were  in  vari- 
ous ways  remarkable.  In  the  autumn  he  was  in  attend- 
ance on  the  Queen  at  Balmoral,  and  thence  conducted 
an  amusing  correspondence  with  that  eccentric  bulwark 
of  the  Protestant  religion,  the  late  Mr,  Whalley,  M.P.,  who 
asked  with  all  due  solemnity  if  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Church  of  Rome.  Later  he  received  the  freedom  of  the 
city  of  Aberdeen,  and  speaking  on  this  occasion  he  re- 
ferred to  the  newly-invented  cry  of  Home  Rule.  He  spoke 
of  the  political  delusions  to  which  the  Irish  people  were 
periodically  subject,  the  lengths  to  which  England  had 
gone  in  meeting  their  complaints,  the  removal  of  all  their 
grievances  except  that  which  related  to  higher  education. 
Any  inequalities  which  still  existed  between  England  and 
Ireland  were  in  favour  of  Ireland.  And  as  to  Home  Rule, 
if  Ireland  was  entitled  to  it,  Scotland  was  better  entitled, 
and  even  more  so  Wales.  '  Can  any  sensible  man,  can 
any  rational  man,  suppose  that  at  this  time  of  day,  in  this 
condition  of  the  world,  we  are  going  to  disintegrate  the 
great  capital  institutions  of  this  country  for  the  purpose  of 
making  ourselves  ridiculous  in  the  sight  of  all  mankind, 
and  crippling  any  power  we  possess  for  bestowing  benefits, 
through  legislation,  on  the  country  to  which  we  belong  ?' 

It  was  now  apparent  that  the  Prime  Minister's  popu- 


222  MR.  GLADSTONE 

larity  was  on  the  wane.  His  seat  was  threatened.  He 
had  shown  scant  interest  in  the  local  affairs  of  Greenwich 
(which  was  perhaps  not  surprising),  and  his  policy  of  re- 
trenchment had  deprived  the  borough  of  a  great  part  of 
its  trade.  The  air  was  heavy  with  murmurs  and  threats, 
and  with  characteristic  courage  Mr.  Gladstone  resolved  to 
meet  the  murmurers  on  their  own  ground,  and  boldly  chal- 
lenge the  judgment  of  his  constituents.  On  a  cold  after- 
noon at  the  end  of  October  he  stood  bare-headed  on  Black- 
heath,  and,  facing  an  audience  of  20,000  persons,  defended 
the  whole  policy  of  his  Administration  in  a  speech  as  long, 
as  methodical,  as  argumentative,  and  in  parts  as  eloquent, 
as  if  he  had  been  speaking  at  his  ease  under  the  friendly 
and  commodious  shelter  of  the  House  of  Commons.  The 
scene  was  thus  described  by  an  eye-witness :  *  There  was 
something  deeply  dramatic  in  the  intense  silence  which  fell 
upon  the  vast  crowd  when  the  renewed  burst  of  cheering, 
with  which  he  was  greeted,  had  subsided.  But  the  first 
word  he  spoke  was  the  signal  of  a  fearful  tempest  of  din. 
From  all  around  the  skirts  of  the  crowd  rose  a  something 
between  a  groan  and  a  howl.  So  fierce  was  it  that  for  a 
little  space  it  might  laugh  to  scorn  the  burst  of  cheering 
that  strove  to  overmaster  it.  The  battle  raged  between 
the  two  sounds,  and  looking  straight  upon  the  excited 
crowd  stood  Mr.  Gladstone,  calm,  resolute,  patient.  It 
was  fine  to  note  the  manly  British  impulse  of  fair-play  that 
gained  him  a  hearing  when  the  first  ebullition  had  exhaust- 
ed itself,  and  the  revulsion  that  followed  so  quickly  and 
spontaneously  on  the  realization  of  the  suggestion  that  it 
was  mean  to  hoot  a  man  down  without  giving  him  a 
chance  to  speak  for  himself.  After  that  Mr.  Gladstone 
may  be  said  to  have  had  it  all  his  own  way.     Of  course  at 


A   SCENE   ON   BLACKHEATH  223 

intervals  there  were  repetitions  of  the  interruptions.  When 
lie  first  broached  the  dockyard  question  there  was  long, 
loud,  and  fervent  groaning ;  when  he  named  Ireland  a  cry 
rose  of  "  God  save  Ireland !"  from  the  serried  files  of  Hi- 
bernians that  had  rendezvoused  on  the  left  flank.  But 
long  before  he  had  finished  he  had  so  enthralled  his  audi- 
ence that  impatient  disgust  was  expressed  at  the  handful 
who  still  continued  their  abortive  efforts  at  interruption. 
When  at  length  the  two  hours'  oration  was  over,  and  the 
question  was  put  —  that  substantially  was,  whether  Mr. 
Gladstone  had  cleared  away  from  the  judgment  of  his 
constituency  the  fog  of  prejudice  and  ill-feeling  that  un- 
questionably encircled  him  and  his  Ministry — the  affirma- 
tive reply  was  given  in  bursts  of  all  but  unanimous  cheer- 
ing, than  which  none  more  earnest  ever  greeted  a  political 
leader.' 

We  see  the  versatility  which  these  pages  have  so  often 
illustrated,  and  the  constant  interest  in  the  concerns  of  the 
Church  which  underlay  all  this  political  activity,  when  we 
turn  from  this  turbulent  and  triumphant  scene  to  an  entry 
in  Bishop  Wilberforce's  journal.  This  was  the  period  when 
an  abortive  attempt  was  made  by  such  Churchmen  as  Arch- 
bishop Tait  and  Dean  Stanley  to  abolish  the  use  of  the 
Athanasian  Creed  in  Divine  service.  On  October  25  the 
Bishop  writes  :  '  Interview  with  W.  E.  G.  Most  friendly. 
Full  talk  as  to  Athanasian  Creed.  Cabinet  not  willing  to 
stir  needless  difficulties.  .  .  .  Noble  as  ever.' 

To  this  same  autumn  belong  the  incidents  familiarly 
known  as  the  '  Ewelme  Scandal '  and  the  '  Colliery  Explo- 
sion ' — two  cases  in  wliich  Mr.  Gladstone,  whUe  observing 
the  letter  of  an  Act  of  Parliament,  violated,  en"  seemed  to 
violate,  its  spirit,  in  order  to  qualify  liighly  deserving  gen- 


224  ^IR-  GLADSTONE 

tlemen  for  posts  to  which  he  wished  to  appoint  them.  The 
incidents  are  only  worth  recalling  now  because  they  un- 
questionably helped  to  undermine  Mr.  Gladstone's  author- 
ity.  Both  these  appointments  were  angrily  challenged  in 
the  House  of  Commons  as  soon  as  Parliament  met  in  1872. 
The  Prime  Minister  defended  them  with  energy  and  skill, 
and  logically  his  defence  was  unassailable.  But  these  were 
cases  where  a  plain  man — and  Parliament  is  full  of  plain 
men — feels,  though  he  cannot  prove,  that  there  has  been 
a  departure  from  ordinary  straightforwardness  and  plain 
dealing.  Though  he  is  powerless  to  demonstrate  the 
wrongfulness  of  the  act,  he  cherishes  a  kind  of  sulky 
grudge  against  the  nimble-witted  opponent  whose  logic 
and  ethics  he  cannot  assail,  but  who  yet  seems  to  have 
paltered  in  a  double  sense  with  unmistakable  obligations. 
Perhaps  it  is  not  fanciful  to  trace  in  these  appointments, 
and  the  defence  of  them,  the  influence  exercised  by  the  dis- 
cipline of  Oxford  on  a  mind  naturally  prone  to  what  the 
vulgar  call  hair-splitting  and  the  learned  casuistry.  '  Let 
us  distinguish,  said  the  philosopher,'  and  at  Oxford  men 
are  taught  to  distinguish  with  scrupulous  care  between 
propositions  closely  similar  but  not  identical.  But  in  the 
House  of  Commons  they  are  satisfied  with  the  roughest 
and  broadest  divisions  between  right  and  wrong ;  they  see 
no  shades  of  colour  between  black  and  white.  Members 
of  Parliament  were  even  brutally  indifferent  to  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's distinctions  between 'judicial  status'  and  'judicial 
experience'  as  qualification  for  Sir  Robert  Collier's  eleva- 
tion. They  could  not  be  induced  to  appreciate  the  differ- 
ence between  membership  of  tlie  University  of  Oxford  and 
membership  of  the  Convocation  of  Oxford  in  the  matter 
of  the  Rectory  of  Ewelme. 


IRISH   UNIVERSITY   BILL  225 

On  May  4, 1S72,  Bishop  Wilberforce,  describing  tlie  open- 
ing of  the  Royal  Academy,  writes  :  '  Nothing  higli  above, 
but  much  careful  and  good  painting.  At  the  dinner  much 
the  same  of  the  speaking.  .  .  .  Gladstone  best,  but  never 
kindling  into  fire.' 

'  September  3  ;  Hawarden. — To  early  church  vi^ith  W.  E. 
G.,  as  lovable  as  ever.  .  .  .  Talk  with  Gladstone  on  Atha- 
nasian  Creed ;  for  no  violence ;  would  keep  all  possible ; 
suspects  it  as  only  a  preliminary  of  attack  on  Prayer- 
Book.' 

In  December,  1872,  Mr.  Gladstone  addressed  the  stu- 
dents of  Liverpool  College  on  some  modern  aspects  of 
Free  Thought  in  Religion,  dealing  in  particular  with  the 
teaching  of  Strauss.  The  late  Mr.  H.  A.  Bright  (author 
of  '  A  Year  in  a  Lancashire  Garden ')  writes  thus  on 
Christmas  Eve  : 

Saturday  I  heard  Mr.  Gladstone  at  the  Liverpool  College. 
It  was  on  all  accounts  a  most  interesting  meeting.  Tories 
and  Liberals,  Churchmen  and  Dissenters,  all  were  there,  and 
all  delighted.  Some  because  an  orthodox  Churchman  was 
speaking,  some  because  the  Liberal  chief  was  before  them  in 
the  flesh.  He  read  from  a  MS.;  but  this  was  hardly  notice- 
able, his  voice  was  so  finely  modulated,  his  action  so  easy  and 
impressive.     Butler  very  happily  quoted  when  it  was  over. 

The  guests  were  spell-bound  in  the  dusky  hall. 

In  the  year  1873  came  the  long-deferred  and  inefifect- 
ual  attack  upon  the  third  branch  of  the  upas-tree.  Mr. 
Gladstone  attempted  to  settle  the  difficult  question  of 
higher  education  in  Ireland,  and  to  adjust  and  reconcile 
the  discordant  demands  of  Romanism  and  Protestantism 
for  a  university  which,  in  its  idea  and  methods,  should  not 
conflict  with  the  convictions  of  either  faith. 
15 


226  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Mr.  Gladstone's  scheme  was  admitted  to  be  ingenious, 
plausible,  and  honestly  intended  to  promote  intellectual 
culture  while  safeguarding  the  rights  of  conscience.  Un- 
happily, it  satisfied  no  one.  The  Roman  Catholics  wanted 
more ;  the  English  Dissenters  thought  they  ought  to  have 
less.  The  Irish  Protestants  resisted  the  abolition  of  their 
old  university ;  the  Roman  Bishops  denounced  the  new 
body  which  was  to  replace  the  old.  Mr.  Disraeli  made 
fun  of  the  Bill ;  stalwart  Liberals  condemned  it ;  the  Irish 
members  voted  against  it.  The  following  extract  from 
Mr.  Forster's  diary  describes  the  close  of  the  debate  on 
the  second  reading : 

'■March  ii,  1873. — Gladstone  rose  with  the  House  dead 
against  him  and  his  Bill,  and  made  a  wonderful  speech — 
easy,  almost  playful,  with  passages  of  great  power  and  elo- 
quence, but  with  a  graceful  play  which  enabled  him  to 
plant  deep  his  daggers  of  satire  in  Horsman,  Fitzmaurice, 
and  Co.' 

The  Bill  was  thrown  out  by  three  votes.  Mr.  Forster 
continues : 

'March  13. — Cabinet  again  at  twelve.  Decided  to  re- 
sign. . .  .  Gladstone  made  us  quite  a  touching  little  speech. 
He  began  playfully.  This  was  the  last  of  some  150  Cabi- 
nets or  so,  and  he  wished  to  say  to  his  colleagues  with 

what  "  profound  gratitude  " And  here  he  completely 

broke  down  and  could  say  nothing,  except  that  he  could 
not  enter  on  the  details.  .  .  .  Tears  came  to  my  eyes,  and 
we  were  all  touched.' 

The  Queen,  of  course,  sent  for  Mr.  Disraeli,  but  he  re- 
fused to  take  office  in  a  minority  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  Mr.  Gladstone  was  compelled  to  resume.  But 
he  and  his  colleagues  were  now,  in  Disraelitish  phrase,  ex- 


DEATH    OF   BISHOP   WILBERFORCE  22/ 

tinct  volcanoes.  All  their  authority,  all  their  power,  was 
gone.  It  was  the  beginning,  and  something  more  than 
the  beginning,  of  the  end. 

The  summer  was  marked  by  an  event  which,  though 
not  strictly  personal  to  Mr.  Gladstone,  is  highly  germane 
to  this  memoir  of  his  career.  On  July  19  his  life -long 
friend,  counsellor,  and  supporter,  Samuel  Wilberforce, 
Bishop  of  Oxford  and  subsequently  of  Winchester,  was 
killed  by  a  fall  from  his  horse  near  the  famous  woods  of 
Wotton,  in  Surrey.  Readers  of  these  pages  will  know  his 
keen  appreciation  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  character  and  gifts ; 
his  shrewd  perception  of  his  friend's  motives  and  impulses, 
and  of  the  diverse  influences  which  swayed  him.  His 
journals  afford,  in  the  writer's  opinion,  the  best  material 
yet  available  for  a  right  judgment  on  the  great  career 
which  we  are  considering.  The  Bishop  was  four  years 
older  than  Mr.  Gladstone.  They  had  become  acquainted 
with  one  another  in  very  early  life.  Acquaintance  soon 
ripened  into  friendship.  The  one  became  a  Bishop  about 
the  time  that  the  other  became  a  Cabinet  Minister,  This 
friendship  was  sealed  by  common  interests  and  purposes 
in  the  sphere  of  religion  and  the  Church  ;  increased  in  te- 
nacity and  tenderness  as  years  went  on,  and  remained  in- 
violate to  the  end.  It  is  no  secret  that  had  Mr.  Gladstone 
become  Prime  Minister  a  month  earlier  than  he  did  in 
1868,  Bishop  Wilberforce,  and  not  Bishop  Tait,  would  have 
been  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  An  eye-witness,  describ- 
ing the  scene  at  Sir  Thomas  Farrer's  house,  where  the 
Bishop's  body  lay,  says  :  '  Among  those  who  came  that 
Monday  morning  were  Mr.  Gladstone  and  Lord  Granville, 
and  well  the  writer  of  these  lines  remembers  the  scene  in 
that  room ;  the  peaceful  body  of  the  Bishop,  the  lines  of 


228  MR.  GLADSTONE 

care  and  trouble  smoothed  out  of  the  face,  the  beautiful 
smile  of  satisfaction,  and,  kneeling  reverentially  by  that 
body,  Mr.  Gladstone,  whose  sobs  attested  how  deeply  his 
feelings  were  moved  by  the  sudden  loss  of  his  long-tried 
friend.' 

The  end  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  first  Administration  was 
now  nigh  at  hand.  The  Cabinet  was  beset  from  within 
and  from  without.  Within,  Mr.  Gladstone  had  indeed  one 
or  two  colleagues  who  were  his  personal  friends,  but,  as  a 
rule,  he  kept  his  friendships  and  his  official  relations  quite 
distinct.  He  did  not  realize  the  force  of  the  saying  that 
men  who  have  only  worked  together  have  only  half  lived 
together ;  and  though,  in  official  intercourse,  he  was  facile 
and  accessible  enough,  he  did  not  feel  bound,  merely  be- 
cause a  man  was  his  colleague,  to  cultivate  relations  of  in- 
timacy with  him  when  business  was  over.  A  member  of 
his  first  Cabinet  remarked  that  he  had  never  been  invited 
into  the  chief's  house,  except  as  a  unit  in  an  assembly  of 
the  Liberal  party.  Men  just  outside  office,  with  their  faces 
steadily  set  towards  it,  chafed  at  the  difficulty  of  attaching 
themselves  to  the  machine  of  Government,  and,  finding 
that  assiduous  service  was  of  no  avail,  betook  themselves, 
in  some  instances  successfully,  to  guerilla  warfare.  It  has 
been  truly  said  that  Mr.  Gladstone  understands  man  but 
not  men  ;  and  meek  followers  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
who  had  sacrificed  money,  time,  toil,  health,  and  some- 
times conscience,  to  the  support  of  the  Government,  turn- 
ed, like  the  crushed  worm,  when  they  found  that  Mr.  Glad- 
stone sternly  ignored  their  presence  in  the  Lobby,  or,  if 
forced  to  speak  to  them,  called  them  by  inappropriate 
names.  And,  if  these  tragedies  occurred  in  the  ranks  of 
earnest  Liberalism,  it  is  not  difficult  to  guess  the  feelings 


THE   PENALTY   OF   EARNESTNESS  229 

with  which  sham  Liberals  and  Tories  regarded  him.  The 
sham  Liberals  had  found  the  pace  forced  to  break-neck 
speed  during  four  years  of  breathless  reform.  The  Tories 
had  seen  one  after  another  of  their  dearest  monopolies  and 
most  sacred  tyrannies  knocked  on  the  head  by  this  terri- 
ble emancipator.  His  strenuousness  of  reforming  purpose 
and  strength  of  will  were  concealed  by  no  lightness  of 
touch,  no  give-and-take,  no  playfulness,  no  fun.  He  had 
little  of  that  saving  gift  of  humour  which  smoothes  the 
practical  working  of  life  as  much  as  it  adds  to  its  enjoy- 
ment. The  Liberal  chief  was  gravely,  terribly,  incessantly 
in  earnest ;  and  unbroken  earnestness,  though  admirable, 
exhausts,  and  in  the  long  run  alienates.  Out  of  doors, 
everyone  was  against  him.  That  noble  and  numerous 
class  of  patriots  who  are  brave  with  other  men's  lives  and 
lavish  of  other  men's  money,  resented  his  recourse  to  ar- 
bitration, his  avoidance  of  war,  his  rigorous  abstinence 
from  foreign  intervention.  The  clergy,  by  a  curious  per- 
versity of  fate,  were  arrayed  in  increasing  numbers  against 
the  one  Minister  of  the  century  who  was  pre-eminently  a 
Christian  and  a  Churchman.  They  found  an  organized 
contingent  of  strange  allies  in  the  brewers,  distillers,  and 
licensed  victuallers,  whose  craft  had  been  menaced,  though 
scarcely  injured,  by  the  Liberal  Government. 

Over  and  above  all  these  elements  of  danger,  Mr. 
Gladstone  was  singularly  unfortunate  in  some  of  his  col- 
leagues, of  whom  it  is  no  libel  to  say  that  they  succeeded 
in  identifying  the  name  of  Liberalism  with  all  that  is 
meanest  in  policy  and  most  offensive  in  demeanour.  They 
imposed  vexatious  taxes ;  they  haggled  about  the  amount 
of  water  in  the  sailors'  grog  and  the  price  of  window-cur- 
tains in  a  public  office ;  they  were  assailed  by  insurrec- 


230  MR.  GLADSTONE 

tions  of  half-starved  children  whose  wretched  bread  their 
legislation  would  have  destroyed ;  they  were  nightly  ridi- 
culed on  the  stage  before  delighted  audiences  till  they 
ran  to  the  Lord  Chamberlain  for  protection  against  the 
scoffers.  Odious  to  the  public,  they  quarrelled  among 
themselves.  They  fought  for  fatter  offices,  and  grudged 
if  they  were  not  satisfied.  There  were  resignations  and 
rumours  of  resignation.  Mr.  Gladstone  took  the  Chancel- 
lorship of  the  Exchequer,  and,  as  some  authorities  con- 
tended, vacated  his  seat  by  doing  so.  Election  after  elec- 
tion went  wrong.  The  chorus  of  the  newspapers  was 
unanimous  against  the  Government.  Mr.  Disraeli,  always 
supreme  in  criticism,  made  the  most  of  these  excellent  op- 
portunities. He  poured  bitter  and  biting  ridicule  on  his 
discomfited  opponents,  and  pointed  out  with  triumphant 
malice  the  signs  of  impending  catastrophe.  That  catas- 
trophe was  not  long  delayed.  On  January  23,  1874,  Mr. 
Gladstone,  confined  to  his  house  by  a  cold,  executed  a 
cojip  d'etat.  He  announced  the  dissolution  of  Parliament. 
His  decree  was  macle  known  to  the  electors  of  Greenwich 
and  to  the  world  in  an  address  of  extraordinary  length. 
In  this  address,  he  declared  that  his  authority  had  now 
'  sunk  below  the  point  necessary  for  the  due  defence  and 
prosecution  of  the  public  interests,'  and  he  promised  that, 
if  it  were  renewed  by  the  country,  he  would  repeal  the 
income-tax. 

It  is  needless  to  describe  the  public  excitement  and 
confusion  which  attended  the  general  election  thus  unex- 
pectedly decreed.  Mr.  Gladstone,  recovering  from  his 
cold,  threw  himself  into  his  candidature  at  Greenwich  with 
incredible  energy.  Writing  on  February  4,  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury said  :  '  It  is  a  new  thing,  and  a  very  serious  thing,  to 


DEFEAT  AND   RESIGNATION  23 1 

see  the  Prime  Minister  "on  the  stump."  Surely  there  is 
some  little  due  to  dignity  of  position.  But  to  see  him  run- 
ning from  Greenwich  to  Blackheath,  to  Woolwich,  to  New 
Cross,  to  every  place  where  a  barrel  can  be  set  up,  is  more 
like  Punch  than  the  Premier.'  Using  a  more  flattering 
comparison,  the  '  Times  '  observed  :  '  The  Prime  Minister 
descends  upon  Greenwich  amid  a  shower  of  gold,  and 
must  needs  prove  as  irresistible  as  the  Father  of  the  Gods.' 

Alas  !  this  was  too  sanguine  a  forecast.  Greenwich, 
which  returned  two  members,  placed  Mr.  Gladstone  second 
on  the  poll,  below  a  local  distiller.  But  even  in  the  second 
place  the  Liberal  chief  was  more  fortunate  than  most  of 
his  followers,  who  were  blown  out  of  their  seats  like  chaff 
before  the  wind.  When  the  election  was  over  the  Tories 
had  a  majority  of  forty-six.  Following  the  example  of  his 
predecessor  in  1868,  Mr.  Gladstone  immediately  resigned. 

Before  the  new  Parliament  had  met  for  the  rather  hum- 
drum business  which  lay  before  it,  Mr.  Gladstone  burst 
upon  the  world  with  a  new  surprise.  A  surprise  it  certainly 
was,  and  yet  he  had  often  foreshadowed  it.  For  many 
years  past  he  had  held,  in  public  and  in  private,  language 
Avhich  pointed  to  an  early  retirement  from  public  life.  He 
had  followed,  he  said,  nearly  all  his  political  contempo- 
raries to  the  grave.  He  had  entered  public  life  in  his 
twenty-third  year,  and  had  earned  his  title  to  retire  at  an 
age  when  most  men  are  only  beginning  their  career.  He 
was  '  strong  against  going  on  in  politics  to  the  end.'  In 
1861  he  wrote:  'Events  are  not  wholly  unwelcome  which 
remind  me  that  my  own  public  life  is  now  in  its  thirtieth 
year,  and  ought  not  to  last  very  many  years  longer.'  In 
1867  he  told  Lord  Russell  that  he  neither  expected  nor 
desired  that  his  political  life  would  be  very  long.    On  May 


232  MR.  GLADSTONE 

6,  1873,  Bishop  Wilberforce  wrote:  'Gladstone  much  talk- 
ing how  little  real  good  work  any  Premier  had  done  after 
sixty;  Peel;  Palmerston,  his  work  all  really  done  before; 
Duke  of  Wellington  added  nothing  to  his  reputation  after. 
I  told  him  Dr.  Clark  thought  it  would  be  physically  worse 
for  him  to  retire.  "  Dr.  Clark  does  not  know  how  com- 
pletely I  should  employ  myself,"  &c.  May  10. — Gladstone 
again  talking  of  sixty  as  full  age  of  Premier.' 

The  author  of  these  sentiments  was  now  sixty -four. 
His  life  had  been  a  continuous  experience  of  exhausting 
labour.  Even  his  iron  constitution  was  beginning  to  show 
signs  of  wear  and  tear.  His  private  affairs,  necessarily 
neglected  under  the  pressure  of  office,  required  his  personal 
attention.  There  was  no  great  question  of  public  interest 
before  the  world.  The  country  which  he  had  served  so 
zealously  had  expressed  its  desire  for  a  breathing -time. 
He  was  weary  and  perhaps  mortified,  and  the  opportunity 
seemed  to  have  arrived  for  change  of  occupation :  idleness 
would  not  have  been  rest.  Accordingly,  on  March  12,  he 
addressed  the  following  letter  to  Lord  Granville : 

I  have  issued  a  circular  to  members  of  Parliament  of  the 
Liberal  party  on  the  occasion  of  the  opening  of  parliamentary 
business.  But  I  feel  it  to  be  necessary  that,  while  discharging 
this  duty,  I  should  explain  what  a  circular  could  not  convey 
with  regard  to  my  individual  position  at  the  present  time.  I 
need  not  apologize  for  addressing  these  explanations  to  you. 
Independently  of  other  reasons  for  so  troubling  you,  it  is  enough 
to  observe  that  you  have  very  long  represented  the  Liberal 
party,  and  have  also  acted  on  behalf  of  the  late  Government, 
from  its  commencement  to  its  close,  in  the  House  of  Lords. 

For  a  variety  of  reasons  personal  to  myself,  I  could  not 
contemplate  any  unlimited  extension  of  active  political  service; 
and  I  am  anxious  that  it  should  be  clearly  understood  by  those 
friends  with  whom  I  have  acted  in  the  direction  of  affairs,  that 


AN   UNEXPECTED   RETURN  233 

at  my  age  I  must  reserve  my  entire  freedom  to  divest  myself 
of  all  the  responsibilities  of  leadership  at  no  distant  time.  The 
need  of  rest  will  prevent  me  from  giving  more  than  occasional 
attendance  in  the  House  of  Commons  during  the  present 
Session. 

I  should  be  desirous,  shortly  before  the  commencement  of 
the  Session  of  1875,  to  consider  whether  there  would  be  ad- 
vantage in  my  placing  my  services  for  a  time  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Liberal  party,  or  whether  I  should  then  claim  exemp- 
tion from  the  duties  I  have  hitherto  discharged.  If,  however, 
there  should  be  reasonable  ground  for  believing  that,  instead 
of  the  course  which  I  have  sketched,  it  would  be  preferable, 
in  view  of  the  party  generally,  for  me  to  assume  at  once  the 
place  of  an  independent  member,  I  should  willingly  adopt  the 
latter  alternative.  But  I  shall  retain  all  that  desire  I  have 
hitherto  felt  for  the  welfare  of  the  party,  and  if  the  gentlemen 
composing  it  should  think  fit  either  to  choose  a  leader  or  make 
provision  ad  interi7n,  with  a  view  to  the  convenience  of  the 
present  year,  the  person  designated  would,  of  course,  command 
from  me  any  assistance  which  he  might  find  occasion  to  seek, 
and  which  it  might  be  in  my  power  to  render. 

The  retirement  of  Mr.  Gladstone  from  active  leadership 
naturally  filled  his  party  with  dismay.  According  to  the 
general  law  of  human  life,  they  only  realized  their  blessings 
when  they  had  lost  them.  They  had  grumbled  at  their 
chief,  and  mutinied  against  him,  and  helped  to  depose  him. 
But,  now  that  this  commanding  genius  was  suddenly  with- 
drawn from  their  councils,  they  found  that  they  had  nothing 
to  put  in  its  place.  Their  indignation  waxed  fast  and  furi- 
ous, and  was  not  the  less  keen  because  they  had  to  some 
extent  brought  their  trouble  on  themselves.  They  com- 
plained with  an  almost  ludicrous  pathos  that  Mr.  Gladstone 
had  led  them  into  the  wilderness  of  Opposition  and  left 
them  there  to  perish.  They  were  as  sheep  without  a  shep- 
herd, and  the  ravening  wolves  of  Toryism  seemed  to  have 


234  MR.  GLADSTONE 

it  all  their  own  way.  But  while  they  were  still  murmuring 
at  their  former  leader  and  making  moan  over  his  desertion, 
he  suddenly  revisited  the  glimpses  of  the  parliamentary 
moon ;  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that,  if  his  disappear- 
ance had  created  consternation,  his  reappearance  created 
much  more.  Archbishop  Tait  had  brought  in  a  '  Public 
Worship  Regulation  Bill,'  of  which  the  object,  abruptly 
stated,  was  to  '  put  down  ritualism.'  The  Government 
took  the  Bill  up  and  afforded  facilities  for  its  considera- 
tion; and  Mr.  Gladstone,  suddenly  returning  from  the 
country,  offered  it  a  most  strenuous  and  an  almost  single- 
handed  opposition.  The  grounds  of  his  resistance  may 
best  be  judged  by  the  following  resolutions  of  which  he 
gave  notice : — 

1.  That  in  proceeding  to  consider  the  provisions  of  the  Bill 
for  the  Regulation  of  Public  Worship,  this  House  cannot  do 
otherwise  than  take  into  view  the  lapse  of  more  than  two 
centuries  since  the  enactment  of  the  present  Rubrics  of  the 
Common  Prayer-Book  of  the  Church  of  England ;  the  multitude 
of  particulars  embraced  in  the  conduct  of  Divine  service  under 
their  provisions ;  the  doubts  occasionally  attaching  to  their 
interpretation,  and  the  number  of  points  they  are  thought  to 
leave  undecided  ;  the  diversities  of  local  custom,  which  under 
these  circumstances,  have  long  prevailed ;  and  the  unreason- 
ableness of  proscribing  all  varieties  of  opinion  and  usage 
among  the  many  thousands  of  congregations  of  the  Church 
distributed  throughout  the  land. 

2.  That  this  House  is  therefore  reluctant  to  place  in  the 
hands  of  every  single  bishop,  on  the  motion  of  one  or  of  three 
persons,  howsoever  defined,  greatly  increased  facilities  towards 
procuring  an  absolute  ruling  of  many  points  hitherto  left  open 
and  reasonably  allowing  of  diversity,  and  thereby  towards  the 
establishment  of  an  inflexible  rule  of  uniformity  throughout 
the  land,  to  the  prejudice,  in  matters  indifferent,  of  the  liberty 
now  practically  existing. 


THE   PUBLIC   WORSHIP   BILL  235 

3.  That  the  House  willingly  acknowledges  the  great  and 
exemplary  devotion  of  the  clergy  in  general  to  their  sacred 
calling,  but  is  not  on  that  account  the  less  disposed  to  guard 
against  the  indiscretion,  or  thirst  for  power,  or  other  faults  of 
individuals. 

4.  That  the  House  is  therefore  willing  to  lend  its  best  as- 
sistance to  any  measure  recommended  by  adequate  authority, 
with  a  view  to  provide  more  effectual  securities  against  any 
neglect  of  or  departure  from  strict  law  which  may  give  evidence 
of  a  design  to  alter,  without  the  consent  of  the  nation,  the  spirit 
or  substance  of  the  established  religion. 

5.  That,  in  the  opinion  of  the  House,  it  is  also  to  be  desired 
that  the  members  of  the  Church,  having  a  legitimate  interest 
in  her  services  should  receive  ample  protection  against  pre- 
cipitate and  arbitrary  changes  of  established  customs  by  the 
sole  will  of  the  clergyman  and  against  the  wishes  locally  prev- 
alent among  them  ;  and  that  such  protection  does  not  appear  to 
be  aflforded  by  the  provisions  of  the  Bill  now  before  the  House. 

6.  That  the  House  attaches  a  high  value  to  the  concurrence 
of  her  Majesty's  Government  with  the  ecclesiastical  authori- 
ties in  the  initiative  of  legislation  afifecting  the  Established 
Church. 

A  shrewd  observer  of  parliamentary  life  once  said 
'Whenever  the  House  of  Commons  is  unanimous,  it  is 
wrong.'  The  truth  of  this  saying  was  illustrated  in  the 
debate  on  the  Public  Worship  Regulation  Bill.  The  House 
was  so  clearly  and  strongly  in  favour  of  the  Bill,  which  has 
been  a  dead  letter  and  a  laughing-stock  ever  since  it  has 
been  law,  that  it  was  read  a  second  time  without  a  division, 
and  Mr.  Gladstone  withdrew  his  resolutions  in  deference  to 
a  unanimous  sentiment.  He  reserved  his  force  of  opposi- 
tion for  Committee,  where  the  most  entertaining  passages 
of  arms  took  place  between  him  and  Sir  William  Harcourt, 
who  had  been  Solicitor-General  during  the  last  two  months 
of  his  Administration.     Sir  William  had  espoused  the  Bill 


236  MR.  GLADSTONE 

with  extraordinary  ardour,  and  when  the  House  of  Lords 
dealt  rather  cavalierly  with  some  amendments  of  the 
Commons,  he  implored  Mr.  Disraeli  to  take  up  the  cud- 
gels, and  expressed  his  confidence  in  him  in  these  glowing 
terms:  'We  have  a  leader  of  this  House  who  is  proud  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  of  whom  the  House  of  Com- 
mons is  proud.  Well  may  the  Prime  Minister  be  proud  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  for  it  was  the  scene  of  his  early 
triumphs,  and  it  is  still  the  arena  of  his  later  and  well- 
earned  glory.  .  .  .  We  may  well  leave  the  vindication  of 
the  reputation  of  this  famous  assembly  to  one  who  will 
well  know  how  to  defend  its  credit  and  its  dignity  against 
the  ill-advised  railing  of  a  rash  and  rancorous  tongue.' 

A  provision  had  been  introduced  into  the  Bill  which 
would  have  overthrown  the  bishop's  right  of  veto  on  pro- 
ceedings to  be  instituted  in  the  new  Court,  and  would  have 
invested  the  archbishop  with  power  to  institute  suits,  or 
allow  them  to  be  instituted,  in  a  diocese  not  his  own. 
This  provision  Mr.  Gladstone  vehemently  opposed,  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  contrary  to  the  whole  tradition  and 
structure  of  the  Church,  and  that  it  was  fundamentally  in- 
consistent with  the  custom  of  Christendom  as  regards  the 
relations  between  Metropolitans  and  their  suffragans.  In 
support  of  this  view  he  quoted  at  large  from  the  canonist 
Van  Espen.  Sir  William  Harcourt  poured  scorn  on  these 
citations ;  was  proud  to  say  he  had  never  heard  of  Van 
Espen ;  pooh-poohed  all  canonists  and  casuists  ;  adopted 
Mr.  Bright's  famous  phrase  about  ecclesiastical  rubbish  ; 
took  the  broad  and  manly  ground  of  common  sense,  com- 
mon law,  and  the  Constitution  ;  and  accused  Mr.  Gladstone 
of  having  come  back  to  wreck  the  Bill  at  the  eleventh 
hour.     Five  days  afterwards  Sir  William  resumed  his  dis- 


AN    UNEQUAL  DUEL  237 

course.  He  had  got  up  the  case  in  the  meantime,  and 
met  Mr.  Gladstone  on  his  own  ground.  He  argued  the 
question  of  canon  law.  He  cited  Ayliffe's  '  Parergon  Juris 
Canonici  Anglicani,'  and  Burn's  'Ecclesiastical  Law,'  and 
sought  to  show  that  the  power  claimed  for  the  Metropolitan 
was  as  sound  canonically  as  constitutionally.  This  unex- 
pected display  of  erudition  gave  Mr.  Gladstone  an  oppor- 
tunity, which  he  was  not  slow  to  use. 

He  rebuked  '  the  hon.  and  learned  gentleman  'for  hav- 
ing given  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  and  most 'objection- 
able examples  he  had  ever  known  of  the  vicious  practice 
of  discussing  speeches  delivered  in  the  Lords.  And  then, 
referring  to  Sir  William's  canonical  exercitations,  he  said : 

I  confess,  fairly,  I  greatly  admire  the  manner  in  which  he 
has  used  his  time  since  Friday  night.  On  Friday  night,  as  he 
says,  he  was  taken  by  surprise.  The  lawyer  was  taken  by 
surprise,  and  so  was  the  professor  of  law  in  the  University  of 
Cambridge ;  the  lawyer  was  taken  by  surprise,  and,  in  conse- 
quence, he  had  nothing  to  deliver  to  the  House  except  a  series 
of  propositions  on  which  I  will  not  comment.  I  greatly  re- 
spect the  order  and  the  spirit  of  the  order  of  the  House  which 
renders  it  irregular,  as,  in  my  opinion,  it  is  highly  inconvenient, 
especially  when  there  is  no  practical  issue,  to  revive  the  details 
and  particulars  of  a  former  debate.  Finding  that  he  has  de- 
livered to  the  House  most  extraordinary  propositions  of  law 
and  history  that  will  not  bear  a  moment's  examination,  my 
hon.  and  learned  friend  has  had  the  opportunity  of  spending 
four  or  five  days  in  better  informing  himself  upon  the  subject, 
and  he  is  in  a  position  to  come  down  to  this  House,  and  for 
an  hour  and  a  half  to  display  and  develope  the  erudition  he 
has  thus  rapidly  and  cleverly  acquired.  Human  nature  could 
not  possibly  resist  such  a  temptation,  and  my  hon.  and  learned 
friend  has  succumbed  to  it  on  this  occasion. 

Thus  ended  this  rather  unequal  duel,  and  the  incident 


238  MR.  GLADSTONE 

is  only  worth  recording  because  it  showed  the  distracted 
and  shattered  Gladstonians  that  their  chief,  though  tem- 
porarily withdrawn  from  active  service,  was  as  vivacious 
and  as  energetic  as  ever,  as  formidable  in  debate,  and  as 
unquestionably  supreme  in  his  party  whenever  he  chose  to 
assert  his  supremacy. 

Mr.  Gladstone  was  now  the  delight  and  glory  of  the 
Ritualists.  The  committee  organized  to  defend  the  ritual- 
istic church  of  St.  Alban's,  Holborn,  against  the  paternal 
attentions  of  the  Bishop  of  London  made  a  formal  and 
public  acknowledgment  of  '  their  gratitude  for  his  noble 
and  unsupported  defence  of  the  rights  of  the  Church  of 
England,  as  exhibited  more  particularly  on  the  occasion  of 
the  recent  debate  on  the  Public  Worship  Regulation  Bill.' 
Cultivated  and  earnest  Churchmen  everywhere  were  at- 
tracted to  his  standard,  and  turned  in  righteous  disgust 
from  the  perpetrator  of  clumsy  witticisms  about  '  Mass  in 
masquerade.'  In  towns  where,  as  at  Oxford  and  Brighton, 
the  Church  is  powerful,  the  effect  of  these  desertions  was 
unmistakably  felt  at  the  general  election  of  1880. 

Theological  controversy  has  always  exercised  an  irresist- 
ible fascination  over  Mr.  Gladstone's  mind.  We  have  seen, 
at  every  stage  of  his  career,  his  inclination  to  turn  aside 
from  the  most  exacting  and  exciting  business  of  State  or 
party  to  argue  nice  questions  of  dogmatic  theology,  or  to 
discuss  the  position  and  prospects  of  the  Church.  The 
passage  of  the  Public  Worship  Regulation  Act  drew  Mr. 
Gladstone,  by  an  irresistible  attraction,  back  into  these 
familiar  fields ;  and  he  uttered  his  views  in  an  article  on 
'  Ritual  and  Ritualism,'  contributed  to  the  '  Contemporary 
Review'  for  October,  1874.  In  this  paper  he  maintained 
with  great  earnestness  and  great  sobriety  the  lawfulness 


'A   SPECIAL   MATTER'  239 

and  expediency  of  moderate  ritual  in  the  services  of  the 
Church  of  England.  He  claimed  for  ritual  apostolic 
authorization  in  St.  Paul's  words,  'Let  all  things  be  done 
decently  and  in  order,'  or,  as  Mr.  Gladstone  more  exactly 
renders  the  Greek,  '  in  right,  graceful,  or  becoming  figure, 
and  by  fore-ordered  arrangement.' 

Immersed  in  ecclesiastical  study,  which  was  destined 
soon  to  develope  into  acrimonious  controversy,  Mr,  Glad- 
stone resolved  to  shake  himself  free  from  the  burdens  of 
political  leadership.  On  January  13,  1875,  he  said,  in  a 
letter  to  Lord  Granville : 

The  time  has,  I  think,  arriv'ed  when  I  ought  to  revert  to  the 
subject  of  the  letter  which  I  addressed  to  you  on  March  12. 
Before  determining  whether  I  should  offer  to  assume  a  charge 
which  might  extend  over  a  length  of  time,  I  have  reviewed,  with 
all  the  care  in  my  power,  a  number  of  considerations,  both 
public  and  private,  of  which  a  portion,  and  these  not  by  any 
means  insignificant,  were  not  in  existence  at  the  date  of  that 
letter.  The  result  has  been  that  I  see  no  public  advantage  in 
my  continuing  to  act  as  the  leader  of  the  Liberal  party ;  and 
that,  at  the  age  of  sixty-five,  and  after  forty-two  years  of  a 
laborious  public  life,  I  think  myself  entitled  to  retire  on  the 
present  opportunity.  This  retirement  is  dictated  to  me  by  my 
personal  views  as  to  the  best  method  of  spending  the  closing 
years  of  my  life.  I  need  hardly  say  that  my  conduct  in  Parlia- 
ment will  continue  to  be  governed  by  the  principles  on  which 
I  have  heretofore  acted  ;  and,  whatever  arrangements  may  be 
made  for  the  treatment  of  general  business,  and  for  the  ad- 
vantage or  convenience  of  the  Liberal  party,  they  will  have  my 
cordial  support.  I  should,  perhaps,  add  that  I  am  at  present, 
and  mean  for  a  short  time  to  be,  engaged  on  a  special  matter, 
which  occupies  me  closely. 

It  is  worth  while  to  notice,  as  an  amusing  instance  of 
fallibility  in  high  places,  that  the  '  Times '  took  this  retire- 
ment as  quite  serious  and  final : 


240  MR.  GLADSTONE 

'  It  may  be  assumed  as  certain  that  there  will  be  oc- 
casions when  his  mind  will  revert  to  Westminster,  and  a 
sense  of  duty  to  the  nation  may  bring  him  back  at  recur- 
rent intervals  to  the  scene  of  so  many  triumphs.  Yet  we 
cannot  but  believe  that  a  resolution  which  can  be  traced 
back  through  many  Sessions,  and  has  stood  twelve  months' 
trial,  will  grow  rather  thar  diminish  in  strength,  and  that 
we  must  not  again  expect  Mr.  Gladstone's  habitual  pres- 
ence in  the  House  of  Commons.' 

The  'special  matter'  with  which  Mr.  Gladstone  was 
busied  proved  to  be  theological  investigation.  In  July, 
1875,  he  replied  to  the  various  and  inconsistent  criticisms 
of  his  article  on  Ritualism  in  a  second  article,  called  '  Is 
the  Church  of  England  worth  Preserving  ?'  The  drift  of 
this  paper  was  thus  summarized  by  the  author : 

I.  The  Church  of  this  great  nation  is  worth  preserving,  and 
for  that  end  much  may  well  be  borne.  II.  In  the  existing  state 
of  minds  and  of  circumstances,  preserved  it  cannot  be,  if  we 
now  shift  its  balance  of  doctrinal  expression,  be  it  by  any  altera- 
tion of  the  Prayer-Book  (either  way)  in  contested  points,  or  be 
it  by  treating  rubrical  interpretations  of  the  matters  hereto- 
fore most  sharply  contested  on  the  basis  of  doctrinal  signifi- 
cance. III.  The  more  we  trust  to  moral  forces,  and  the  less 
to  penal  proceedings  (which  are  to  a  considerable  extent  ex- 
clusive one  of  the  other),  the  better  for  the  establishment,  and 
even  for  the  Church.  IV.  If  litigation  is  to  be  continued,  and 
to  remain,  within  the  bounds  of  safety,  it  is  highly  requisite 
that  it  should  be  confined  to  the  repression  of  such  proceed- 
ings as  really  imply  unfaithfulness  to  the  national  religion. 
V.  In  order  that  judicial  decisions  on  ceremonial  may  habit- 
ually enjoy  the  large  measure  of  authority,  finality,  and  respect, 
which  attaches  in  general  to  the  sentences  of  our  courts,  it  is 
requisite  that  they  should  have  uniform  regard  to  the  rules 
and  results  of  full  historical  investigation,  and  should,  if  pos- 


THE   VATICAN   DECREES  24I 

sible,  allow  to  stand  over  for  the  future  matters  insufficiently 
cleared,  rather  than  decide  them  upon  partial  and  fragmentary- 
evidence. 

To  vindicate  the  claims  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
to  enforce  the  policy  which  seemed  most  condticive  to  her 
well-being  and  efificiency,  was  the  purpose  of  these  remark- 
able papers,  which  were  widely  circulated  and  republished 
under  the  title  of  '  The  Church  of  England  and  Ritualism.' 
But  in  dealing  with  his  main  proposition  Mr.  Gladstone 
had  made  a  startling  and  an  unfortunate  digression.  Ridi- 
culing the  notion  that  a  handful  of  ritualistic  clergy  could, 
if  they  would,  Romanize  the  Church  of  England,  he  said : 

'At  no  time  since  the  sanguinary  reign  of  Mary  has  such 
a  scheme  been  possible.  But,  if  it  had  been  possible  in 
the  seventeenth  or  eighteenth  centuries,  it  would  still  have 
become  impossible  in  the  nineteenth ;  when  Rome  has 
substituted  for  the  proud  boast  of  semper  cadem  a  policy  of 
violence  and  change  in  faith ;  when  she  has  refurbished 
and  paraded  anew  every  rusty  tool  she  was  fondly  thought 
to  have  disused ;  when  no  one  can  become  her  convert 
without  renouncing  his  moral  and  mental  freedom  and 
placing  his  civil  loyalty  and  duty  at  the  mercy  of  another ; 
and  when  she  has  equally  repudiated  modern  thought  and 
ancient  history.  I  cannot  persuade  myself  to  feel  alarm  as  to 
the  final  issue  of  her  crusades  in  England,  and  this  although 
I  do  not  undervalue  her  great  powers  of  mischief.' 

This  passage  created  a  sudden  storm  of  honest  indig- 
nation. Every  Roman  Catholic  in  the  Queen's  dominions 
felt  aggrieved.  There  was  a  flavour  of  No  Popery  about 
the  words  which  offended  the  palate  of  Liberal  politicians. 
Contradictions  and  protests  were  heard  on  every  side,  and 
the  statement  that  a  Roman  Catholic  had  of  necessity 
16 


242  MR.  GLADSTONE 

placed  his  civil  loyalty  and  duty  at  the  mercy  of  another 
was  the  subject  of  peculiarly  angry  comment. 

Mr.  Gladstone  replied  to  his  assailants  by  publishing  a 
pamphlet  called  'The  Vatican  Decrees  in  their  Bearing 
on  Civil  Allegiance,'  and  in  this  he  reafifirmed,  amplified, 
and  maintained  his  propositions  with  fulness,  force,  and 
precision.  A  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  copies  of  the 
pamphlet  were  sold  in  a  few  weeks,  and  the  Press  teemed 
with  replies.  To  the  protests,  criticisms,  and  rebukes 
which  were  lavished  on  him  the  indefatigable  controversial- 
ist made  a  rejoinder  in  an  essay  called  '  Vaticanism,'  in 
which  he  summed  up  the  controversy  by  maintaining  that 
although  in  practice  Roman  Catholics  might  be  as  loyal  as 
their  fellow-citizens,  still  in  theory  the  modern  claim  of 
Papal  infallibility  was  always  liable  to  clash  with  the  re- 
quirements of  civil  allegiance. 


CHAPTER   X 

The  Eastern  Question  —  The  Midlothian  campaign  —  The  General 
Election  of  jSSo — Liberal  Triumph  —  Prime  Minister  a  second 
time — Ireland  and  Egypt — Defeat  and  resignation — The  General 
Election  of  1885  —  Home  Rule  —  Prime  Minister  a  third  time  — 
The  Home  Rule  Bill  defeated  —  The  General  Election  of  1886  — 
Resignation — Leadership  of  Opposition — Golden  wedding — Life  at 
Hawarden. 

The  smoke  and  din  of  this  theological  battle  had  scarcely 
cleared  away  when  the  great  protagonist  of  Anglicanism 
was  suddenly  and  imperiously  summoned  to  a  fresh  cam- 
paign. An  insurrection  had  broken  out  in  Bulgaria,  and 
the  Turkish  Government  despatched  a  large  force  to  re- 
press it.  This  was  soon  done,  and  repression  was  followed 
by  a  hideous  orgy  of  massacre  and  outrage.  A  rumour  of 
these  horrors  reached  England,  and  public  indignation 
spontaneously  awoke.  Mr.  Disraeli,  with  a  strange  frank- 
ness of  cynical  brutality,  sneered  at  the  rumour  as  coffee- 
house babble,  and  made  odious  jokes  about  the  oriental 
way  of  executing  malefactors.  But  Christian  England  was 
not  to  be  pacified  with  these  Asiatic  pleasantries,  and  the 
country  rose  in  passionate  indignation  against  what  were 
known  as  '  the  Bulgarian  atrocities.'  Lord  Hartington  was 
now  the  titular  leader  of  the  Liberal  party,  and  his  sympa- 
thies were  entirely  on  the  right  side.  But  he  is  a  man  of 
slow- moving  mind  and  calm,  if  not  lethargic,  temperament. 


244  ^IR-    GLADSTONE 

He  would  probably  have  done  what  was  right  and  proper 
in  his  place  in  Parliament :  submitted  a  resolution,  asked 
for  a  return,  or  moved  an  amendment  to  the  Address.  But 
the  national  temper,  and  the  feeling  of  the  Liberal  party  in 
particular,  demanded  prompter  action  and  more  emphatic 
speech.  The  Liberals'  extremity  was  Mr.  Gladstone's 
opportunity.  He  rushed  from  his  library  at  Hawarden, 
forgot  alike  ancient  Greece  and  modern  Rome,  and  flung 
himself  into  the  agitation  against  Turkey  with  a  zeal  which 
in  his  prime  he  had  never  excelled,  if,  indeed,  he  had 
equalled  it.  He  made  the  most  impassioned  speeches, 
often  in  the  open  air;  he  published  pamphlets  which 
rushed  into  incredible  circulations;  he  poured  letter  af- 
ter letter  into  the  newspapers ;  he  darkened  the  sky  with 
controversial  post-cards;  and,  as  soon  as  Parliament  met, 
he  was  ready  with  all  his  unequalled  resources  of  elo- 
quence, argumentation,  and  inconvenient  enquiry,  to  drive 
home  his  great  indictment  against  the  Turkish  Govern- 
ment and  its  friends  and  champions  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. Lord  Hartington,  whose  homely  mind  moved  more 
slowly  and  uttered  itself  more  cautiously,  soon  found  him- 
self pushed  aside  from  his  position  of  titular  leadership. 
Though  there  was  a  section  of  the  Whigs  who  doggedly 
supported  Turkey,  it  soon  became  evident  that,  both  in 
the  House  and  in  the  country,  the  fervour,  the  faith,  the 
militant  and  victorious  element  in  the  Liberal  party  were 
sworn  to  Mr.  Gladstone's  standard.  It  was  just  two  years 
since  he  had  resigned  the  leadership  of  the  party,  and  he 
was  again  its  dominating  and  inspiring  influence. 

The  reason  of  all  this  passion  is  not  difficult  to  dis- 
cover. Mr.  Gladstone  is  a  humane  man  :  the  Turkish  tyr- 
anny is  founded  on  cruelty.     He  is  a  worshipper  of  free- 


THE   EASTERN    QUESTION  245 

doni :  the  Turk  is  a  slaveowner.  He  is  a  lover  of  peace : 
the  Turk  is  nothing  if  not  a  soldier.  He  is  a  disciple  of 
progress :  the  Turkish  empire  is  a  synonym  for  retro- 
gression. But  above  and  beyond  and  before  all  else,  Mr. 
Gladstone  is  a  Christian  :  and  in  the  Turk  he  saw  the  great 
anti-Christian  Power  standing  where  it  ought  not,  in  the 
fairest  provinces  of  Christendom,  and  stained  with  the  rec- 
ord of  odious  cruelty  practised  through  long  centuries  on 
its  defenceless  subjects  who  were  worshippers  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

It  is  unnecessary  at  this  time  of  day  to  trace  in  detail 
the  history  of  a  great  controversy  so  fresh  in  every  memory 
that  can  reach  back  for  fifteen  years.  For  the  purpose  of 
this  narrative  it  is  enough  to  say  that  Mr.  Gladstone's  res- 
olute and  splendid  hostility  to  Lord  Beaconsfield's  Avhole 
system  of  foreign  policy  restored  him  to  his  paramount 
place  among  English  politicians.  For  four  years  —  from 
1876  to  1880 — he  sustained  the  high  and  holy  strife,  with 
an  enthusiasm,  a  versatility,  a  courage,  and  a  resourceful- 
ness, which  raised  the  enthusiasm  of  his  followers  to  the 
highest  pitch,  and  filled  his  guilty  and  baffled  antagonists 
with  a  rage  which  went  near  to  frenzy.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that,  by  frustrating  Lord  Beaconsfield's  design  of 
going  to  war  on  behalf  of  Turkey,  he  saved  England  from 
the  indelible  disgrace  of  a  second  and  more  gratuitous 
Crimea.  But  it  was  not  only  in  Eastern  Europe  that  his 
saving  influence  was  felt.  In  Africa,  and  India,  and  where- 
ever  British  arms  were  exercised  and  British  honour  was 
involved,  he  was  the  resolute  and  unsparing  enemy  of  that 
odious  system  of  bluster  and  swagger  and  might  against 
right,  on  which  Lord  Beaconsfield  and  his  colleagues  be- 
stowed the  tawdry  nickname  of  Imperialism.    The  County 


246  MR.    GLADSTONE 

of  Edinburgh,  or  Mid  Lothian,  which  he  contested  against 
the  dominant  influence  of  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch,  was  the 
scene  of  his  most  astonishing  exertions.  In  his  own  phrase, 
he  devoted  himself  to  '  counterworking  tlie  purpose  of  Lord 
Beaconsfield.'  As  the  general  election  approached  one 
and  only  one  question  was  submitted  to  the  electors — '  Do 
you  approve  or  condemn  Lord  Beaconsfield's  system  of 
foreign  policy  ?' 

The  answer  was  given  at  Easter,  1880,  when  Lord  Bea- 
consfield and  his  colleagues  received  the  most  emphatic 
condemnation  which  had  ever  been  bestowed  on  an  Eng- 
lish Government,  and  the  Liberals  were  returned  in  an 
overwhelming  majority  over  Tories  and  Home  Rulers  com- 
bined. 

One  of  the  most  accomplished  and  most  spiritually- 
minded  men  of  his  time  —  the  late  Dean  Church  —  wrote 
thus  to  a  friend  : 

You  were  always  sanguine  that  the  country  had  '  found  out ' 
Lord  Beaconsfield.  But  here  in  London  people  had  not  found 
him  out,  and  wherever  you  went  you  heard  people,  not  merely 
Tories  and  Jingoes,  but  lofty,  intellectual  people,  who  would 
have  been  inclined  to  challenge  you  if  you  had  doubted  their 
Liberalism,  repeating  the  same  hollow  cry  of  trust  in  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  dislike  and  distrust  of  Gladstone.  If  you  have 
not  seen  it,  I  don't  think  you  can  form  a  notion  of  the  in- 
tensity of  that  dislike.  ...  Of  all  the  evil  symptoms  about,  this 
incapacity  to  perceive  Gladstone's  real  nobleness,  and  to  keep 
in  check  the  antipathies  created  by  his  popular  enthusiasm 
and  his  serious  religiousness,  is  one  of  the  worst.  It  is  a  bad 
thing  to  have  a  great  man  before  a  nation,  and  a  great  minor- 
ity in  it  should  not  be  able  to  recognize  him.  I  don't  wonder 
at  your  remembering  the  Song  of  Miriam. 

Mr.  Gladstone  was  now  member  for  Mid  Lothian,  hav- 
ing retired  from  Greenwich  at  the  dissolution.     He  was 


PRIME   MINISTER   AGAIN  247 

also  the  unquestioned  chief,  the  idol,  and  the  pride  of  the 
victorious  army  of  Liberalism.  But  he  was  not  the  titular 
leader  of  the  Liberal  party.  When  Lord  Beaconsfield  re- 
signed—  which  he  had  the  grace  to  do  without  meeting 
Parliament — the  Queen,  in  strict  conformity  with  constitu- 
tional usage,  sent  for  Lord  Hartington  as  nominal  leader 
of  the  Liberal  party  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Lie  could 
do  nothing,  and  her  Majesty  applied  to  Lord  Granville. 
The  two  statesmen  went  together  to  Windsor  on  April  23. 
They  both  assured  the  Queen  that  the  victory  was  Mr. 
Gladstone's  ;  that  the  Liberal  party  would  be  satisfied  with 
no  other  leader ;  and  that  he  was  the  inevitable  Prime 
Minister.  They  returned  to  London  in  the  afternoon,  and 
called  on  Mr.  Gladstone .  in  Harley  Street.  He  was  ex- 
pecting them  and  the  message  which  they  brought,  and  he 
went  down  to  Windsor  without  a  moment's  delay.  That 
evening  he  kissed  hands,  and  returned  to  London  as  Prime 
Minister  for  the  second  time.  Truly  his  enemies  had  been 
made  his  footstool. 

The  history  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  second  Administration 
must  be  very  briefly  told.  Before  he  came  into  office  the 
Eastern  question  was  closed,  and,  chiefly  through  his  in- 
fluence, it  had  been  closed  in  a  sense  compatible  with  hu- 
manity and  religion.  His  Administration  did  good  and 
usefulwork  at  home,  but  its  best  performances  were  not 
sensational.  It  was  seriously,  and  at  length  fatally,  em- 
barrassed by  two  controversies  which  sprang  up  with  little 
warning,  and  found  the  Liberal  party  and  its  leaders  to- 
tally unprepared  to  deal  with  tliem.  The  first  of  these 
controversies  related  to  Ireland. 

Here  it  was  Mr.  Gladstone's  singular  misfortune  to 
make  enemies  of  both  sides  at  once.     He  alienated  consid- 


248  MR.  GLADSTONE 

erable  masses  of  English  opinion  by  his  attempts  to  reform 
the  tenure  of  land  in  Ireland ;  and  he  provoked  the  Irish 
people  by  his  attempts  to  establish  social  order  and  to  re- 
press crime.  At  the  general  election  of  18S0  Irish  ques- 
tions were  completely  in  the  background :  the  demand  for 
Home  Rule  was  not  taken  seriously :  the  country  was  po- 
litically tranquil,  and  the  distress  due  to  the  failure  of  the 
crops  had  been  alleviated  by  the  combined  action  of  Eng- 
lishmen irrespective  of  party.  During  the  summer  of  1880 
it  was  found  that  the  Irish  landlords  were  evicting  whole- 
sale the  tenants  whom  famine  had  impoverished.  A  well- 
meant  but  hastily-drawn  Bill  to  provide  compensation  for 
these  evicted  tenants  passed  the  Commons,  but  was  ship- 
wrecked in  the  Lords ;  and  the  natural  consequence  of  its 
rejection  was  seen  in  the  ghastly  record  of  outrage  and 
murder  which  stained  the  following  winter.  The  Session 
of  188 1  was  divided  between  a  Coercion  Bill  which  only 
irritated  while  it  failed  to  terrify,  and  a  Land  Bill  which, 
in  itself  a  magnificent  performance,  was  yet  so  mangled  by 
the  Lords  that  the  best  part  of  1882  was  taken  up  in  mend- 
ing it.  The  Irish  showed  no  gratitude  for  boons  which 
they  did  not  ask,  and,  demanding  self-government,  would 
make  no  terms  with  any  English  Administration  which  re- 
fused it.  Political  disaffection  was,  or  seemed  to  be,  asso- 
ciated with  odious  crimes. 

In  the  spring  of  1882  the  Government  resolved  on  a 
change  of  tactics.  They  determined  to  release  Mr.  Parnell 
and  some  of  his  followers,  who  had  been  arrested  without 
trial  under  the  Coercion  Act  of  the  previous  year.  The 
Chief  Secretary,  Mr.  Forster,  dissented  from  the  policy  of 
his  colleagues,  and  resigned  office.  His  resignation  was 
announced  on  May  2.     On  the  evening  of  that  day  Mr. 


THE   PHCENIX   PARK  249 

Gladstone  said  to  a  friend,  'The  state  of  Ireland  is  very 
greatly  improved.'  Ardent  Liberals  on  both  sides  of  the 
Channel  shared  this  sanguine  faith ;  but  they  were  doom- 
ed to  a  cruel  disappointment.  On  May  6  the  Queen  per- 
formed the  public  ceremony  of  dedicating  Epping  Forest 
to  the  use  of  the  people  for  ever.  It  was  a  brilliant  and  an 
animating  scene.  The  late  Mr.  W.  H.  O'Sullivan,  member 
of  Parliament  for  the  county  of  Limerick,  was  standing  by 
the  writer  of  this  book  in  the  space  reserved  for  the  House 
of  Commons.  He  was  accounted  a  man  of  extreme  opin- 
ions, but  he  was  a  blithe  and  genial  creature,  and  on  this 
occasion  he  actually  overflowed  with  friendly  fervour. 
'This  is  a  fine  sight,'  he  exclaimed,  'but  please  God  v/e 
shall  yet  see  something  like  it  in  Ireland.  JVc  have  entered 
at  last  upon  the  right  path.  You  will  hear  no  more  of  the 
Irish  difficulty.^  Within  an  hour  of  the  time  at  which  he 
spoke,  the  newly-appointed  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland — 
the  gallant  and  high-minded  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish — 
and  his  Under-Secretary,  Mr.  Burke,  were  stabbed  to  death 
in  the  Phoenix  Park  at  Dublin,  and  the  '  Irish  difficulty ' 
entered  on  the  acutest  phase  which  it  has  ever  known. 

This  murder — not  morally  more  reprehensible  than 
many  which  had  preceded  it,  but  more  startling  and  sen- 
sational— aroused  a  furious  indignation  in  England,  and, 
the  Coercion  Act  of  the  previous  year  having  proved  a 
dismal  failure,  it  was  succeeded  by  a  Crimes  Act  of  the 
utmost  rigour.  This  Act,  courageously  administered  by 
Lord  Spencer  and  Sir  George  Trevelyan,  abolished  excep- 
tional crime  in  Ireland,  but  completed  the  breach  between 
the  English  Government  and  the  Irish  party  in  Parliament. 

Another  controversy  which  proved  disastrous  to  Liber- 
alism arose  from  the  occupation  of  Egypt  in  1882,     The 


250  MR.  GLADSTONE 

bombardment  of  Alexandria  and  the  subsequent  expedi- 
tion were  profoundly  distasteful  to  the  great  bulk  of  Lib- 
erals. Mr.  Bright  resigned  office  rather  than  be  a  party  to 
them.  They  were  but  little  congenial  to  Mr.  Gladstone's 
own  mind  and  temper.  But  a  policy  undertaken  by  his 
Administration  bore  the  stamp  of  his  own  authority;  and 
the  great  majority  of  Liberals  accepted  with  reluctance, 
but  without  resistance,  a  line  of  action  which  wore  an  un- 
pleasantly close  resemblance  to  the  antics  of  Lord  Bea- 
consfield.  Nothing  but  absolute  confidence  in  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's political  rectitude  and  tried  love  of  peace  could 
have  secured  even  this  qualified  and  negative  sanction 
from  his  party ;  and,  at  each  succeeding  step  in  the  dismal 
progress,  shamefaced  Liberals  found  themselves  dogged 
by  the  inexorable  Nemesis  which  waits  on  the  abandon- 
ment, even  for  a  moment,  of  political  principles  once  de- 
liberately and  conscientiously  adopted.  The  beginning  of 
the  Liberal  downfall  may  be  traced  to  the  shame  and  an- 
noyance which  followed  a  too  ready  acceptance  of  the 
Egyptian  policy.  That  shame  and  that  annoyance  relaxed 
the  efforts  of  countless  Liberals  who  in  1880  had  been  en- 
thusiastic for  Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  cause,  but,  in  1885, 
felt  that  they  could  no  longer  support  a  course  repugnant 
alike  to  reason  and  to  conscience.  The  heroic  career  and 
striking  personality  of  General  Gordon  had  fascinated  the 
public  imagination  ;  and  the  circumstances  of  his  untimely 
death  awoke  an  outburst  of  indignation  against  those  who 
were,  or  seemed  to  be,  responsible  for  it.  When  the  pop- 
ularity of  a  Government  out  of  doors  declines,  signs  of 
disaffection  are  never  wanting  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
When  parliamentary  discipline  can  no  longer  be  enforced 
by  the  threat,  expressed  or  implied,  of  a  penal  dissolution. 


A   WELCOME   DEFEAT  25  I 

mutiny  is  imminent.  The  Tories,  encouraged  by  the  by- 
elections  and  reinforced  by  the  Irish  vote,  were  in  a  mili- 
tant and  unscrupulous  mood.  The  Liberals,  ashamed  of 
the  endless  self-contradictions  of  the  Egyptian  policy,  and 
the  aimless  loss  of  life  which  they  were  asked  to  sanction, 
were  more  and  more  unwilling  to  oppose  the.  votes  of  cen- 
sure which  the  Tories  incessantly  proposed.  A  noble 
majority  steadily  declined.  The  Cabinet  was  rent  by  in- 
testine contentions.  The  Whiggish  majority  of  the  Minis- 
ters were  in  favour  of  renewing  the  Irish  Crimes  Act.  A 
Radical  minority  dissented  from  this  course,  and  wished 
to  conciliate  Ireland  by  establishing  Provincial  Self-Gov- 
ernment.  While  the  dispute  was  at  its  hottest,  on  June  8, 
1885,  the  Government  were  beaten  on  the  Budget.  In  ref- 
erence to  this  event,  Lord  Shaftesbury  writes :  '  Have  just 
seen  the  defeat  of  Government  on  the  Budget  by  Conserv- 
atives and  Parnellites  combined ;  an  act  of  folly  amount- 
ing to  wickedness.  God  is  not  in  all  their  thoughts,  nor 
the  country  either.  All  seek  their  own,  and  their  own  is 
party  spirit,  momentary  triumph,  political  hatred,  and  the 
indulgence  of  low,  personal,  and  unpatriotic  passion.' 

It  was  generally  believed  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  not  least  firmly  on  the  Liberal  side,  that  the  Govern- 
ment courted  this  defeat,  as  a  way  of  escape  from  their 
manifold  perplexities.  Certainly  no  strenuous  efforts  were 
made  to  avert  it. 

Mr.  Gladstone,  disgusted  with  the  course  of  policy  into 
which  he  had  insensibly  drifted,  and  weary  of  dissensions 
among  his  colleagues,  resigned  office.  The  Queen  offered 
him  the  dignity  of  an  earldom,  which,  happily  for  his  party, 
he  declined.  After  some  rather  complicated  negotiations, 
he  was  succeeded  by  Lord  Salisbury. 


252  MR.  GLADSTONE 

The  general  election  took  place  in  the  following  No- 
vember. In  the  boroughs  the  Liberals  lost  heavily.  The 
clergy,  the  publicans,  and  the  Parnellites  were  found  array- 
ed in  scandalous  alliance  against  the  Liberal  cause.  Tory 
enthusiasm  took  advantage  of  Liberal  lukewarmness,  and 
the  result  was  disastrous  to  the  Liberal  party.  But  in  the 
counties  the  good  cause  triumphed.  The  agricultural  la- 
bourer proved,  as  a  general  rule,  loyal  to  those  who  had 
just  secured  for  him  the  rights  of  citizenship.  That  pe- 
culiar doctrine  of  agricultural  politics  which  has  become 
famous  under  the  nickname  of  'Three  Acres  and  a  Cow,' 
was  beyond  doubt  attractive  to  the  voter  and  advantageous 
to  its  authors.  In  the  bulk  of  English  counties  the  Irish 
voter  is  unknown,  and  the  Established  Church  is  politi- 
cally weakest  just  where  she  has  relied  most  exclusively 
upon  her  traditional  authority.  In  brief,  the  counties  went 
far  to  redeem  the  losses  in  the  boroughs ;  but  not  quite 
far  enough.  When  the  election  was  over,  the  Liberal 
party  was  just  short  of  the  numerical  strength  which  was 
requisite  to  defeat  a  combination  of  Tories  and  Parnellites. 
Lord  Salisbury,  therefore,  retained  office,  but  the  life  of 
his  Administration  hung  by  a  thread. 

Though  not  in  office,  the  Liberals  held  an  extremely 
satisfactory  position.  They  were  strong  in  numbers,  in 
enthusiasm,  and,  for  the  time  at  least,  in  union.  They  had 
at  their  head  Mr.  Gladstone's  unique  personality  and  com- 
manding authority.  In  Mr.  Chamberlain  they  had  a  cham- 
pion of  great  ability  and  industry,  and  of  a  popularity  just 
at  its  zenith.  Their  opponents  were  notoriously  distracted 
by  internecine  jealousies,  and  dependent  for  their  con- 
tinuance in  office  on  the  precarious  support  of  the  Parnell- 
ites.    In  a  word,  the  Liberals  were  an  exceptionally  strong 


HOME   RULE  253 

Opposition,  and  the  difficulties  which  lay  before  the  Gov- 
ernment promised  abundant  opportunities  for  harassing 
and  successful  attack. 

Thus  all  might  still  ha\^e  gone  well,  and  very  well,  for 
the  Liberal  party,  when  suddenly  the  fates  decreed  a  fresh 
exemplification  of  the  mischief  which  arises  from  hurrying 
an  unprepared  party  into  a  novel  and  perplexing  course. 

On  November  24,  1884,  Lord  Shaftesbury,  moved  by 
the  spirit  of  prophecy,  wrote :  '  In  a  year  or  so  we  shall 
have  Home  Rule  disposed  of  (at  all  hazards),  to  save  us 
from  daily  and  hourly  bores.'  On  December  17,  1885, 
the  world  was  astonished  by  the  appearance  of  an  anony- 
mous paragraph,  stating  that,  if  Mr.  Gladstone  returned  to 
ofiice,  he  was  prepared  to  deal  in  a  liberal  spirit  with  the 
demand  for  Home  Rule,  The  genesis  of  that  paragraph 
has  never  been  clearly  ascertained,  but  it  was  surrounded 
by  an  atmosphere  of  vulgar  mystery,  little  suited  to  the 
importance  of  the  new  policy  or  the  personal  dignity  of  an 
illustrious  statesman.  Its  appearance  was  the  signal  for  a 
storm  of  questions,  contradictions,  explanations,  enthusi- 
asms, and  jeremiads.  But  amidst  all  the  hurly-burly  Mr. 
Gladstone  held  his  peace.  He  would  neither  confirm  nor 
deny.  The  public  must  wait  and  see.  The  subject  was 
one  which  could  only  be  handled  by  a  responsible  Minis- 
try. The  bewilderment  and  confusion  of  the  Liberal  party 
were  absolute.  No  one  knew  what  was  coming  next :  who 
was  on  what  side ;  or  whither  his  party — or,  indeed,  him- 
self—  was  tending.  One  point  only  was  clear:  if  Mr. 
Gladstone  meant  what  he  appeared  to  mean,  the  Parnell- 
ites  would  support  him,  and  the  Tories  must  leave  office. 
The  Government  seemed  to  accept  the  situation  :  when 
Parliament  met,  they  executed,  for  form's  sake,  some  con- 


2  54  MR.  GLADSTONE 

fused  manoeuvres  in  which  Mr.  W.  H.  Smith  was  a  promi- 
nent figure,  and  then  they  rode  for  a  fall  on  a  resolution  in 
favour  of  municipal  allotments. 

There  was  a  moment  of  uncertainty,  during  which  it 
seemed  possible  that  the  Tory  Government  might  try  to 
defy  parliamentary  opinion  and  retain  office  until  defeated 
on  a  distinct  vote  of  non-confidence.  But  wiser  counsels 
prevailed,  and,  late  at  night  on  January  29,  1886,  Sir  Henry 
Ponsonby  arrived  at  Mr.  Gladstone's  house  with  a  message 
from  the  Queen.  On  the  ist  of  February  Mr.  Gladstone 
kissed  hands  at  Osborne,  and  was,  for  the  third  time, 
Prime  Minister  of  England. 

'  When  Gladstone  runs  down  a  steep  place,  his  im- 
mense majority,  like  the  pigs  in  Scripture,  but  hoping  for 
a  better  issue,  will  go  with  him,  roaring  in  grunts  of  exul- 
tation.' This  was  Lord  Shaftesbury's  prediction  in  the 
preceding  year ;  but  it  was  based  on  an  assumption  which 
proved  erroneous.  It  took  for  granted  the  unalterable  do- 
cility of  the  Liberal  party. 

The  moment  that  the  Queen  empowered  Mr,  Gladstone 
to  form  an  Administration,  it  became  apparent  that  docil- 
ity had  given  place  to  a  spirit  of  a  different  kind.  Of 
those  who  had  been,  in  the  previous  June,  his  colleagues 
in  the  Cabinet,  Lord  Hartington,  Lord  Selborne,  Lord 
Derby,  Lord  Northbrook  and  Lord  Carlingford  declared 
themselves  against  what  they  understood  to  be  his  policy, 
and  they  gained  formidable  allies  in  Sir  Henry  James  and 
Mr.  Courtney.  It  may  be  questioned  whether  such  losses 
were  adequately  balanced  even  by  the  high  character  and 
literary  genius  of  ^r.  Morley,  or  the  forensic  skill  and 
learning  of  Lord  Herschell.  What  followed  may  be  briefly 
told.     In  April  Mr.  Gladstone  brought  in  his  Bill  for  the 


A   SPLIT   IN   THE   CAMP  255 

government  of  Ireland,  and  his  Bill  for  buying  out  the 
Irish  landlords.  Meanwhile  the  ranks  of  the  seceders  were 
reinforced  by  Mr.  Chamberlain,  the  enterprising  and  able 
exponent  of  the  new  Radicalism,  and  he  was  accompanied 
by  Mr.  (now  Sir  George)  Trevelyan,  the  very  flower  of  po- 
litical honour  and  chivalry,  who  combined  the  most  digni- 
fied traditions,  social  and  literary,  of  the  Whig  party  with 
a  fervent  and  stable  Radicalism  which  the  vicissitudes  of 
twenty  years  had  constantly  tried  and  never  found  want- 
ing. 

Each  of  these  secessions  had  its  special  weight,  but  the 
most  important  resistance  which  the  new  policy  encoun- 
tered was  that  of  Mr.  Bright.  His  high  reputation  as  a 
man  whose  politics  were  part  of  his  religion,  and  who  had 
never  turned  aside  by  a  hair's  breadth  from  the  narrow 
path  of  civil  duty  as  he  understood  it,  gave  him  a  weight 
of  moral  influence  such  as  no  contemporary  politician 
could  command. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  multiply  instances.  In  every  con- 
stituency a  large  number  of  leading  Liberals  declared 
themselves  against  Mr.  Gladstone's  Irish  Bills  ;  and  this 
necessarily  produced  its  effect  on  the  minds  of  the  Liberal 
rank-and-file.  It  was  no  sufficient  compensation  for  these 
defections  that  the  Liberals  gained,  in  certain  districts,  the 
support  of  that  very  broken  reed,  the  Irish  vote,  which 
was  destined  to  pierce  the  hand  of  so  many  a  confiding 
candidate  who  leant  upon  it. 

Meanwhile  the  two  sections  of  the  dissentient  party  in 
Parliament  were  consolidating  themselves.  The  Whigs 
under  Lord  Hartington  coalesced  with  the  Radicals  under 
Mr.  Chamberlain,  and  both  together  made  a  working  alli- 
ance with  the  Tories.     This  alliance  was  admirably  organ- 


256  MR.  GLADSTONE 

ized  in  London  and  in  the  constituencies.  Speeches  of 
immense  force  were  made  against  the  Bills  in  all  the  chief 
towns.  The  whole  Metropolitan  Press,  with  the  exception 
of  one  morning  and  one  evening  paper,  daily  and  weekly 
denounced  the  Bills  with  skill  and  vigour.  A  remorseless 
criticism  in  Parliament  detected  in  both  measures  an 
abundance  of  faults  which  could  not  be  denied  even  by 
those  who  believed  their  general  principles  to  be  sound. 
Mr.  Gladstone's  best  friends  urged  him  either  to  accept 
such  modifications  as  should  disarm  his  critics,  or  to  with- 
draw his  Bills  and  substitute  for  them  a  resolution  affirm- 
ing the  principle  of  Irish  autonomy. 

But  his  official  counsellors  and  the  self-styled  experts 
of  Liberal  organization  assured  him  that  the  Home  Rule 
Bill  would  pass  the  second  reading  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  that,  even  if  by  some  mischance  it  were  defeated 
by  two  or  three  votes,  his  Irish  policy  was  popular  in  the 
country,  and  he  had  everything  to  hope  from  an  early  ap- 
peal to  the  constituencies.  As  the  day  of  the  momentous 
division  drew  near,  hopes  of  a  majority  for  the  Bill  faded 
into  fears  of  a  defeat ,  but  still  the  optimists  of  party  were 
persuaded  that  the  majority  against  the  Bill  would  not 
amount  to  ten  votes.  The  Liberal  Cabinet  arrived  at  a 
desperate  resolution.  If  they  were  beaten  by  this  small 
majority  they  would  not  resign.  Some  faithful  adherent 
should  move  a  vote  of  confidence  on  general  grounds.  This 
would  be  supported  by  many  who  could  not  vote  for  the 
Home  Rule  Bill.  The  settlement  of  the  Irish  question 
would  be  deferred  to  a  later  Session,  the  Liberals  would 
still  be  in  office,  and  all  would  be  well.  But  alas  for  the 
vanity  of  human  hopes  and  the  knock-kneed  calculations 
of  parliamentary  managers !     On   the   early  morning   of 


AN   UNSUCCESSFUL  APPEAL  257 

June  8  the  Bill  was  thrown  out  by  thirty.  Mr.  Gladstone 
immediately  advised  the  Queen  to  dissolve  Parliament. 
Her  Majesty  naturally  demurred  to  a  second  dissolution 
within  seven  months,  and  begged  Mr.  Gladstone  to  recon- 
sider his  advice.  He  replied  that  he  was  sure  that  a  gen- 
eral election  would  cause  less  inconvenience  to  the  country 
than  a  year  of  embittered  and  fanatical  agitation  for  and 
against  Home  Rule.  The  Queen  yielded,  and  Parliament 
was  dissolved  on  June  26. 

The  dissolution  was  a  tactical  blunder,  but  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's appeal  to  the  country  was  skilfully  worded.  He 
freely  admitted  that  the  Bills  were  dead.  He  asked  the 
country  simply  to  sanction  a  principle,  and  that  a  very 
plain  and,  in  itself,  a  most  reasonable  one.  He  invited  the 
constituencies  to  say  Aye  or  No  to  the  question,  'Whether 
you  will  or  will  not  have  regard  to  the  prayer  of  Ireland 
for  the  management  by  herself  of  the  affairs  specifically 
and  exclusively  her  own  ?' 

This  dissociation  of  the  bare  principle  of  self-govern- 
ment from  the  practical  perplexities  with  which  the  Bills 
had  abounded  enabled  many  Liberals  who  dissented  from 
the  Land  Bill  altogether,  and  from  many  parts  of  the  Home 
Rule  Bill,  to  give  their  support,  either  as  voters  or  as  can- 
didates, to  Mr.  Gladstone  in  his  attack  upon  seats  held  by 
Tories.  But  with  the  majority  of  electors  the  contrary 
view  prevailed.  And  this  is  not  surprising.  Up  to  Decem- 
ber, 1885,  English  politicians  who  were  favourable  to  Home 
Rule,  or,  indeed,  had  seriously  considered  it,  might  be 
counted  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand.  With  denuncia- 
tions of  Mr.  Parnell's  aims  and  methods  Liberals  were 
indeed  abundantly  familiar;  but  sympathy  with  the  de- 
mand for  Home  Rule  was  extremely  rare,  and  Mr.  Glad- 
17 


258  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Stone's  views  of  it  were  known  only  to  a  privileged 
few. 

Suddenly  the  electorate  was  called  to  approve  what  it 
had  hitherto  been  taught  to  condemn.  Under  the  imperi- 
ous influence  of  genius  and  eloquence,  men  found  them- 
selves hurried  into  new  and  astonishing  courses.  The  pre- 
possessions, opinions,  and  prejudices  of  a  lifetime  cannot 
be  unlearnt  in  a  moment.  It  is  an  excellent  characteristic 
of  the  English  voter  that  he  looks  before  he  leaps ;  and,  if 
the  object  which  he  is  asked  to  clear  is  very  unfamiliar,  he 
will  look  twice  or  thrice  before  the  plunge  is  made.  In 
reference  to  Home  Rule,  sufficient  time  was  not  allowed 
for  this  process  of  enquiry  and  familiarization.  The  sanc- 
tion of  the  voters  was  asked,  at  a  moment's  notice,  for  a 
vast  and  unexpected  change  ;  and  this  sanction  they  re- 
fused to  give.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the 
refusal  was  final.  A  proposition  inherently  vicious  may  be 
condemned  at  once  and  for  ever ;  but  a  proposition  which 
is  objectionable,  chiefly  because  it  is  novel,  may  be  held 
over  for  further  consideration.  Democracy  signifies  its 
disapproval  in  the  same  guarded  form  which  formerly  con- 
veyed the  refusal  of  the  Royal  Assent :  L'Etat,  as  formerly 
Le  Roi,  s'avisera. 

But  meanwhile  Liberal  desertions  were  many,  and  ab- 
stentions more.  When  the  election  closed,  it  showed  a 
majority  of  considerably  more  than  a  hundred  against  Mr. 
Gladstone's  policy.  The  resignation  of  Ministers  followed 
in  due  course,  and,  after  a  brief  interval  in  which  it  had 
seemed  possible,  and  many  had  sincerely  hoped,  that  Lord 
Hartington  would  become  Prime  Minister,  the  Tories  re- 
entered office  with  Lord  Salisbury  at  their  head. 

With  the  opening  of  the  new  Parliament  Mr.  Gladstone, 


GOLDEN   WEDDING  259 

now  seventy -six  years  old,  entered  on  an  extraordinary 
course  of  physical  and  intellectual  efforts,  with  voice  and 
pen,  in  Parliament  and  on  the  platform,  on  behalf  of  the 
cause,  defeated  but  not  abandoned,  of  self-government  for 
Ireland.  The  exuberance  of  bodily  and  mental  activity, 
the  fertility  of  argumentative  resource,  and  the  copiousness 
of  rhetoric  which  he  threw  into  the  enterprise,  would  have 
been  remarkable  at  any  stage  of  his  public  life  ;  con- 
tinued into  his  eighty-second  year  they  are  little  less  than 
miraculous. 

One  touch  of  domestic  interest  may  not  unfitly  close 
this  narrative.  On  July  25,  1889,  Mr.  Gladstone  celebrated 
the  fiftiet*li  anniversary  of  his  marriage  with  the  gracious 
and  gentle  lady  who,  through  all  vicissitudes,  has  been  the 
guiding  star  of  his  fortunes  and  the  good  angel  of  his 
house.  The  day  was  '  auspicated '  as  Burke  says,  '  with 
the  old  warning  of  the  Church,  Sursuni  corda '  for,  in  har- 
mony with  the  spirit  of  the  fifty  years  which  it  completed, 
it  began  with  attendance  at  the  Holy  Communion.  It 
was  gladdened  by  the  loving  presence  of  family  and  friends, 
and  the  innumerable  benedictions  of  well-wishers  at  a  dis- 
tance. It  was  characteristic  that  even  at  a  moment  so 
heavily  charged  with  memories  and  emotions,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone found  time  to  attend  the  House  of  Commons  and 
deliver  an  animated  speech  in  support  of  the  Royal  Grants. 
From  the  countless  letters  of  congratulation  and  good 
wishes  which  were  received  on  that  memorable  day,  the 
following  is  taken  as  one  of  the  most  graceful  and  most 
touching : 

Archbishop's  House,  Westminster,  S.W. ,  July  23,  18S9. 
My  dear  Mrs.  Gladstone, — The  last  time  we  met,  you  said, 
'  I  do  not  forget  old  days.'     And  truly  I  can  say  so  too. 


26o  MR.  GLADSTONE 

Therefore,  in  the  midst  of  all  who  will  be  congratulating 
you  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  your  home-life,  I  cannot  be 
silent.  I  have  watched  you  both  out  on  the  sea  of  public 
tumults  from  my  quiet  shores.  You  know  how  nearly  I  have 
agreed  in  William's  political  career,  especially  in  his  Irish  pol- 
icy of  the  last  twenty  years.  And  I  have  seen  also  your  works 
of  charity  for  the  people,  in  which,  as  you  know,  I  heartily 
share  with  you.  There  are  few  who  keep  such  a  jubilee  as 
yours :  and  how  few  of  our  old  friends  and  companions  now 
survive  !  We  have  had  a  long  climb  up  those  eighty  steps — 
for  even  you  are  not  far  behind  —  and  I  hope  we  shall  not 
'  break  the  pitcher  at  the  fountain.'  I  wonder  at  your  activity 
and  endurance  of  weather.  May  every  blessing  be  with  you 
both  to  the  end  ! — Believe  me,  always  yours  affectionately, 

Henry  E.  Card.  Manning. 

In  connexion  with  this  domestic  incident  the  following 
account  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  daily  life  at  Hawarden  may 
perhaps  be  read  with  interest.  It  was  written  by  an  in- 
habitant of  the  parish,  and  may  be  regarded  as  accurate  : 

'Quiet  living  at  Hawarden  is  Mr.  Gladstone's  supreme 
pleasure.  Of  late  years  peace  and  quiet  have  been  some- 
what endangered  by  the  growing  system  of  excursions,  bent 
on  pleasure  and  politics.  The  local  politician  looks  upon 
politics  as  relaxation  and  change  from  the  routine  of  his 
profession  or  trade.  He  is  somewhat  slow  to  understand 
that  speeches,  crowds,  and  cheers  are  sometimes  out  of 
place.  Hawarden  Park  has  had  to  be  closed  to  large 
parties  after  Bank  Holiday  in  August.  Without  this  regu- 
lation it  would  be  impossible  to  secure  even  a  moderate 
amount  of  privacy  to  Mr.  Gladstone.  And  even  now  an 
occasional  large  party  arrives  at  Hawarden  Station  from 
Lancashire  in  ignorance  of  the  restriction.  To  avoid  spoil- 
ing their  day's  pleasure  they  are  admitted  to  the  park,  and 
Mr.  Gladstone  has  then  to  choose  between  staying  within 


LIFE    AT    HAWARDEN  26 1 

doors,  or  encountering  the  well-meant  but  inconvenient  en- 
thusiasm of  the  excursionists.  So  large  during  the  summer 
months  of  this  year  became  the  number  of  visitors  on  Sun- 
days, so  considerable  was  the  consequent  inconvenience  to 
the  parishioners,  that  Mr.  Gladstone  had  to  cease  reading 
the  lessons  in  church.  Although  the  general  behaviour  of 
those  who  annually  visit  Hawarden  is  excellent,  yet  the 
natural  consequence  is  the  gradual  disappearance  of  ferns 
and  plants  which  can  be  easily  uprooted  and  removed. 
Some  unmannerly  person  even  cut  out  Mr.  Gladstone's 
name  from  his  Bible  in  church.  But  these  are  small  draw- 
backs, having  regard  to  the  evident  enjoyment  derived  by 
excursionists  from  the  use  of  the  park  and  grounds. 

'  For  some  months  past  Mr.  Gladstone  has  been  busily 
engaged  with  the  preliminary  steps  of  a  scheme  he  has  long 
had  in  his  mind.  The  number  of  his  books  began  to  be 
too  great  for  the  available  space  in  Hawarden  Castle. 
They  overflowed  into  every  room.  The  Glynne  library 
occupied  two  large  rooms.  From  the  first,  Mr.  Gladstone 
had  minutely  to  study  the  best  system  of  storing  books, 
and  his  views  on  the  subject  have  recently  been  given  in 
the  "  Nineteenth  Century."  By  systematic  and  ingenious 
economy  of  space,  the  bulk  of  20,000  volumes  was  housed 
in  two  rooms.  But  still  the  number  grew,  and  large  pack- 
ages unopened  began  to  encumber  the  rooms.  Several 
thousands  of  these  have  now  been  removed  to  a  commo- 
dious iron  building  fitted  as  a  library.  Mr.  Gladstone  is 
known  to  have  a  large  ulterior  scheme  for  founding  a 
library,  and  the  present  erection  is  a  half-way  house.  Both 
in  the  old  and  new  library  the  position  of  every  book  was 
determined  by  Mr.  Gladstone  himself,  and  he  rarely  has 
any  difficulty  in  laying  his  hand  upon  the  book  that  may 


262  MR.  GLADSTONE 

be  required.  The  collection  is  strong  in  contemporary  and 
general  literature,  strongest,  perhaps,  in  theology  and  the 
classics,  while  works  on  Homer,  Dante,  and  Shakespeare 
abound.  There  are  three  writing  tables  in  the  room.  At 
one  Mrs.  Gladstone  sits.  Of  the  other  two,  one  is  used  by 
Mr.  Gladstone  for  his  correspondence,  the  other  is  devoted 
to  his  literary  work.  Stored  in  the  deep  recesses  of  the 
bookshelves  are  stacks  of  walking-sticks,  axes,  and  many 
other  miscellaneous  presents  which  have  been  received  at 
various  times.  About  the  room  are  busts  and  engravings 
of  old  friends  and  colleagues,  Sidney  Herbert,  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle,  Canning,  and  Tennyson  among  others.  The 
"Temple  of  Peace,"  as  the  study  is  called,  is  always  avail- 
able for  those  staying  in  the  house  who  wish  for  quiet 
reading. 

'  In  equally  good  order  are  Mr.  Gladstone's  papers.  The 
accumulated  correspondence,  official  papers,  and  memo- 
randa of  fifty  years  of  public  life  occupy  a  considerable 
space.  For  years  they  were  stowed  in  wooden  cupboards 
in  different  rooms,  and  had  the  old  woodwork  of  the  house 
caught  fire,  documents  of  the  greatest  historical  interest 
would  probably  have  been  destroyed.  Fortunately  they 
have  all  been  methodically  arranged  in  the  fireproof  octa- 
gon, of  which  Mr.  Gladstone  is  extremely  proud. 

'  The  daily  routine  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  life  at  Hawarden 
is  well  known.  The  early  walk  to  church  before  breakfast ; 
the  morning  devoted  chiefly  to  literary  work  and  the  se- 
verer kinds  of  business  and  study ;  half  an  hour  or  an  hour 
for  reading  or  writing  after  luncheon  ;  the  afternoon  walk 
or  visit,  or  tree  cutting ;  correspondence  and  reading  after 
a  cup  of  tea  until  dinner-time.  As  a  rule  Mr,  Gladstone 
reads  after  dinner  until  about  11.15.     He  greatly  enjoys 


WOODCRAFT  263 

an  occasional  game  at  backgammon.  Of  chess,  as  a  game, 
he  has  the  very  highest  opinion,  but  he  finds  it  too  long 
and  exciting.  Whist  he  enjoys,  but  he  seldom  takes  a 
hand.  Music  he  delights  in,  and  as  all  the  members  of 
his  family  are  musical,  and  two  or  three  are  performers 
above  the  average,  his  wishes  in  this  direction  can  be 
readily  met. 

'  During  the  later  years  Mr.  Gladstone's  family  have 
discouraged  him  from  cutting  down  trees.  Few  forms  of 
exercise  are  more  violent  and  trying  to  the  heart,  and  at 
Mr.  Gladstone's  age  the  risk  must  be  considerable.  Still 
he  has  occasionally  wielded  the  axe  this  summer  with  much 
of  his  old  power  and  with  extraordinary  energy  and  keen- 
ness. Tree  cutting  has  its  dangers,  but  in  his  thirty  )^ears' 
experience  of  it  Mr.  Gladstone  has  been  fortunate  in  es- 
caping them.  The  only  serious  inconvenience  he  ever 
suffered  was  from  a  chip  which  caused  a  slight  abrasion  of 
the  eyeball.  Once  an  accident  almost  occurred.  Mr.  Henry 
Gladstone  had  climbed  a  large  lime  tree  which  Mr.  Glad- 
stone had  begun  to  cut,  when,  without  any  warning  and 
owing  to  unexpected  rot  in  its  centre,  the  tree  fell.  At  the 
moment  Mr.  Henry  was  high  up,  and  on  the  underneath 
side.  To  the  onlookers'  relief  he  managed  to  get  round 
the  trunk  as  the  tree  was  falling,  and  escaped  with  a  shak- 
ing. The  bough  on  which  he  had  stood  was  smashed. 
Mr.  Gladstone  never  cuts  down  a  tree  for  the  sake  of  the 
exercise.  A  doubtful  tree  is  tried  judicially.  Sometimes 
its  fate  hangs  in  the  balance  for  years.  The  opinion  of 
the  family  is  consulted,  and  frequently  that  of  visitors. 
Mr.  Ruskin  sealed  the  fate  of  an  oak ;  Sir  J.  Millais  de- 
cided that  the  removal  of  an  elm  would  be  a  clear  im- 
provement.    The  trees  at  Hawarden  are  treated  as  the 


264  MR.  GLADSTONE 

precious  gifts  of  Nature  with  which  no  human  hand  should 
deal  rashly.  And  when  Mr.  Gladstone  does  set  to  work 
he  evidently  bears  in  mind  the  correct  view  of  Homer;- — 

'  Whatever  may  be  the  occupation  of  the  moment,  Mr. 
Gladstone's  life  at  Hawardcn  is  a  period  of  contented  and 
perfect  enjoyment.  It  is  full  of  interest  and  peace.  Ever 
ready  to  take  his  part  in  local  matters,  whether  it  is  the 
promotion  of  an  intermediate  school  or  a  new  water  sup- 
ply, the  building  of  a  gymnasium  or  the  furthering  of  fruit 
and  flower  cultivation,  he  delights  in  the  quiet  and  familiar 
scenes  far  removed  from  the  worries  and  storms  of  public 
life.  He  lives  among  his  own  people,  and  for  his  own  en- 
joyment asks  for  nothing  more.  The  public  life  of  a  lead- 
ing statesman  offers  the  boldest  and  stateliest  outline  to 
the  public  view.  It  may  be  that  the  most  striking  and 
memorable  chapters  in  a  future  biography  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone will  contain  the  story  of  his  private  affairs  and  do- 
mestic life.' 

[Reproduced,  by  the  kind  permission  of  the  proprietor, 
from  the  DaiVjy  GrapJiic,  October  25,  1890.] 


CHAPTER  XI 

Analysis  of  Character — Religiousness — Attitude  towards  Nonconform- 
ity— Love  of  power — Political  courage — Conservative  instincts — 
Love  of  beauty — Literary  tastes — Mastery  of  finance — Business- 
like aptitude — Temper — Courtesy — Attractiveness  in  private  life. 

Whoever  attempts  to  write  a  study  of  Mr.  Gladstone's 
character  undertakes  to  handle  a  rather  complicated  theme. 
He  has  to  analyze  a  nature  agitated  and  perplexed  by  a 
dozen  cross-currents  of  conflicting  tendency,  and  to  assign 
their  true  causes  to  psychological  phenomena  which  are 
peculiarly  liable  to  misinterpretation. 

Mr.  Gladstone  has  for  the  last  half-century  loomed  so 
large  in  the  public  view  as  the  politician,  the  Minister,  and 
latterly  the  demagogue,  that  other  and  deeper  aspects  of 
his  character  have  been  overlooked  and  obscured.  Thus 
it  will  probably  seem  to  savour  of  paradox  to  affirm,  as  the 
writer  is  prepared  to  do,  that  the  paramount  factor  of  Mr. 
Gladstone's  nature  is  his  religiousness.  The  religion  in 
which  Mr.  Gladstone  lives  and  moves  and  has  his  being  is 
an  intensely  vivid  and  energetic  principle,  passionate  on 
its  emotional  side,  definite  in  its  theory,  imperious  in  its 
demands,  practical,  visible,  and  tangible  in  its  effects.  It 
runs  like  a  silver  strand  through  the  complex  and  varie- 
gated web  of  his  lo«g  and  chequered  life.  We  saw  at  the 
beginning  of  this  book  that  he  wished  to  take  Holy  Orders 
instead  of  entering  Parliament.     Had  the  decision  gone 


266  MR.  GLADSTONE 

differently,  the  most  interesting  of  all  the  '  Lives  of  the 
Archbishops  of  Canterbury '  would  still  be  unwritten. 
But  the  mere  choice  of  a  profession  could  make  no  differ- 
ence to  the  ground -tone  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  thought. 
While  a  politician  he  was  still  essentially,  and  above  all,  a 
Christian — some  would  say,  an  ecclesiastic.  Through  all 
the  changes  and  chances  of  a  political  career,  as  a  Tory, 
as  a  Home  Ruler,  in  office  and  in  opposition,  sitting  as  a 
duke's  nominee  for  a  pocket-borough,  and  enthroned  as 
the  idol  of  an  adoring  democracy,  Mr.  Gladstone 

Plays,  in  the  many  games  of  life,  that  one 
Where  what  he  most  doth  value  must  be  won. 

In  his  own  personal  habits,  known  to  all  men,  of  system- 
atic devotion ;  in  his  rigorous  reservation  of  the  Sunday 
for  sacred  uses ;  in  his  written  and  spoken  utterances ;  in 
his  favourite  studies ;  in  his  administration  of  public  af- 
fairs ;  in  the  grounds  on  which  he  has  based  his  opposi- 
tion to  policies  of  which  he  has  disapproved  —  he  has 
steadily  and  constantly  asserted  for  the  claims  of  religion 
a  paramount  place  in  public  consideration,  and  has  re- 
proved the  stale  sciolism  which  thinks,  or  affects  to  think, 
that  Christianity,  as  a  spring  of  human  action,  is  an  ex- 
hausted force. 

It  is  this  religiousness  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  character 
which  has  incurred  the  bitter  wrath  of  those  large  sections 
of  society  whose  lax  theories  and  corresponding  practice 
his  example  has  constantly  rebuked ;  which  has  won  for 
him  the  affectionate  reverence  of  great  masses  of  his  coun- 
trymen who  have  never  seen  his  face ;  and  which  accounts 
for  the  singular  loyalty  to  his  person  and  policy  of  those 
Nonconformist  bodies  from  whom,  on  the  score  of  merely 


NONCONFORMITY   AND   NONCONFORMISTS      26/ 

theological  opinion,  he  is  so  widely  separated.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's present  attitude  towards  Nonconformity  and  Non- 
conformists, so  strikingly  different  from  that  which  marked 
his  earlier  days,  is  due,  no  doubt,  in  part,  to  the  necessities 
of  his  political  position,  but  due  much  more  to  his  growing 
conviction  that  English  Nonconformity  means  a  robust 
and  consistent  application  of  the  principles  of  the  King- 
dom of  God  to  the  business  of  public  life.  This  was  well 
illustrated  by  what  occurred  at  the  Memorial  Hall  in  Far- 
ringdon  Street  on  May  8,  1888,  when  Mr.  Gladstone  re- 
ceived an  address  in  support  of  his  Irish  policy,  signed  by 
3,730  Nonconformist  ministers.  To  this  address,  which 
was  read  by  the  Rev.  J.  Guinness  Rogers,  Mr.  Gladstone 
replied : 

I  accept  with  gratitude  as  well  as  pleasure  the  address 
which  has  been  presented  to  me,  and  I  rejoice  again  to  meet 
you  within  walls  which,  although  no  great  number  of  years 
have  passed  since  their  erection,  have  already  become  historic, 
and  which  are  associated  in  my  mind  and  in  the  minds  of 
many  with  honourable  struggles,  sometimes  under  circum- 
stances of  depression,  sometimes  under  circumstances  of  prom- 
ise, but  always  leading  us  forward,  whatever  may  have  been 
the  phenomena  of  the  moment,  along  the  path  of  truth  and 
justice.  I  am  veiy  thankful  to  those  who  have  signed  this 
address  for  the  courageous  manner  in  which  they  have  not 
scrupled  to  associate  their  political  action  and  intention  with 
the  principles  and  motives  of  their  holy  religion. 

The  best  theologian  in  England  (as  Dr.  Dollinger 
called  Mr.  Gladstone)  cannot  help  being  aware  that  the 
theory  of  Nonconformity,  both  in  respect  of  its  historic 
basis  and  of  its  relation  to  scientific  Theology,  leaves 
much  to  be  desired ;  but  not  the  less  clearly  does  he  rec- 
ognize the  fact  that  on  those  supreme  occasions  of  public 


268  MR.  GLADSTONE 

controversy  when  the  path  of  politics  crosses  the  path  of 
morality,  the  Nonconformist  bodies  of  England  have  pro- 
nounced unhesitatingly  for  justice  and  mercy,  while  our 
authorized  teachers  of  religion  have  too  often  been  silent 
or  have  spoken  on  the  wrong  side. 

This  keen  sense  of  the  religious  bearing  of  political 
questions  has  determined  Mr.  Gladstone's  action  in  not  a 
few  crises  of  his  parliamentary  life.  It  was  the  exacting 
rigour  of  a  religious  theory  that  drove  him  out  of  the  Cab- 
inet in  1845.  ^^  ^^s  his  belief  that  marriage  is  a  sacred 
and  indissoluble  union  which  dictated  his  pertinacious  op- 
position to  the  Divorce  Bill  in  1857.  Ten  years  later,  he 
felt  that  the  Irish  Establishment  could  no  longer  be  main- 
tained, because  it  could  plead  neither  practical  utility  nor 
'the  seal  and  signature  of  ecclesiastical  descent.'  In  the 
Eastern  question  he  discerned  that  all  the  various  interests 
which  dread  and  loathe  Christianity  were  making  common 
cause  on  behalf  of  the  Power  which  has  for  centuries  per- 
secuted the  worshippers  of  Christ  in  Eastern  Europe,  and 
that  the  godless  cynicism  which  scoffed  at  the  red  horrors 
of  Bulgaria  was  not  so  much  an  unchristian  as  an  anti- 
Christian  sentiment.  In  more  recent  days,  it  is  very  prob- 
able that  among  the  forces  which  have  drawn  him  into  his 
passionate  advocacy  of  Irish  Nationalism  has  been  the 
fact  that  the  cause  of  Home  Rule  is  to  a  great  extent  the 
cause  of  that  august  and  authoritative  Communion  to 
which  the  Celtic  race  is  so  profoundly  attached,  and 
which,  at  least  in  some  of  its  aspects,  Mr.  Gladstone  him- 
self has  always  regarded  with  a  friendly  eye. 

When  he  handles  the  religious  aspects  of  a  political 
question,  Mr.  Gladstone's  eloquence  rises  to  its  highest 
flight,  as  in  his  speech  on  the  second  reading  of  the  Affir- 


'THAT  SOLEMN  ACCOUNT'  269 

mation  Bill  in  18S3.  Under  the  system  then  existing 
(which  admitted  Jews  to  Parliament  but  excluded  Athe- 
ists), to  deny  the  existence  of  God  was  a  fatal  bar,  but  to 
deny  the  Christian  Creed  was  no  bar  at  all.  This,  Mr. 
Gladstone  contended,  was  a  formal  disparagement  of 
Christianity,  which  was  thereby  relegated  to  a  place  of 
secondary  importance.  Those  who  heard  it  will  not  easily 
forget  the  solemn  splendour  of  the  passage  in  which  this 
argument  was  enforced. 

The  administration  of  government  has  always  been,  in 
Mr.  Gladstone's  hands,  a  religious  act.  Even  in  the  trivial 
concerns  of  ordinary  life  the  sense  of  responsibility  to  an 
invisible  Judge  for  the  deeds  done  in  the  body  presses  on 
him  with  overwhelming  weight.  He  is  haunted  by  respon- 
sibility for  time,  and  talents,  and  opportunities,  and  influ- 
ence, and  power ;  responsibility  for  reading,  and  writing, 
and  speaking,  and  eating,  and  drinking;  and  to  this  the 
task  of  government  superadds  responsibility  for  the  ma- 
terial and  moral  interests  of  the  people  entrusted  to  his 
charge  ;  responsibility,  above  all  else,  for  much  that  vitally 
affects  the  well-being,  the  efficiency,  and  the  spiritual  re- 
pute of  that  great  religious  institution  with  which  the  com- 
monwealth of  England  is  so  closely  intertwined.  In  the 
Bidding  Prayer  at  Oxford  the  congregation  is  exhorted  to 
pray  for  those  in  authority  that  they  '  may  labour  to  pro- 
mote the  glory  of  God  and  the  present  and  future  welfare 
of  mankind ;  remembering  always  that  solemn  account 
which  they  must  one  day  give  before  the  judgment-seat  of 
Christ.'  Those  who  have  been  behind  the  scenes  when 
Mr.  Gladstone  was  preparing  to  make  some  important 
appointment  in  the  Church,  and  have  witnessed  the 
anxious  and  solemn  care  with  which  he  approaches  the 


270  MR.  GLADSTONE 

task,  have  seen  that  high  ideal  of  duty  translated  into 
practice. 

If  we  assign  the  first  place  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  charac- 
ter to  his  religiousness,  we  must  certainly  allow  the  second 
to  his  love  of  power.  And  it  is  neither  a  sarcasm  nor  a 
jest  (though  it  sounds  like  both)  to  say  that  this  second 
characteristic  is  in  some  measure  related  to  the  first. 
From  his  youth  up  Mr.  Gladstone  has  been  conscious  of 
high  aims  and  great  abilities.  He  has  earnestly  desired 
to  serve  his  day  and  generation,  and  he  has  known  that 
he  has  unusual  capacity  for  giving  effect  to  this  desire. 
In  order  that  those  powers  and  that  capacity  may  have 
free  scope,  it  has  been  necessary  that  their  possessor 
should  be  in  a  position  of  authority,  of  leadership,  of  com- 
mand. And  thus  it  comes  about  that  ambition  has  been 
part  of  his  religion  ;  for  ambition  means  with  him  nothing 
else  than  the  resolute  determination  to  possess  that  official 
control  over  the  machine  of  State  which  will  enable  him 
to  fulfil  his  predestined  part  in  the  providential  order,  and 
to  do,  on  the  largest  scale,  and  with  the  amplest  opportu- 
nities, what  he  conceives  to  be  his  duty  to  God  and  man. 
This  is  Mr.  Gladstone's  love  of  power.  It  has  nothing  in 
common  with  the  vulgar  eagerness  for  place  and  pay  and 
social  standing  which  governs  the  lesser  luminaries  of  the 
political  heaven ;  but,  in  itself  an  inborn  and  resistless 
impulse,  it  has  become  identified  with  his  deliberate  theory 
of  the  public  good,  and  it  is  confirmed  by  the  unbroken 
habit  of  a  lifetime.  As  a  Tory,  as  a  Peelite,  as  a  Liberal, 
and  as  a  Home  Ruler,  Mr.  Gladstone  has  passed  the 
greater  part  of  his  life  amid  the  excitements,  the  interests, 
and  the  responsibilities  of  office  ;  and,  when  not  in  office, 
he  has  found  in  the  active  guidance  of  a  militant  Opposi- 


RESURGAM  2/1 

tion  ample  scope  for  the  exercise  of  his  astonishing 
gifts,  and  a  scarcely  diminished  importance  in  the  pub- 
lic eye. 

It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  observe  that  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's love  of  power  is  supported  by  a  splendid  fearless- 
ness. In  proposing  in  Parliament  the  national  memorial 
to  Lord  Beaconsfield  he  referred  in  tones  of  genuine  ad- 
miration to  his  dead  rival's  political  courage  ;  and  that 
great  quality  has  been  illustrated  at  least  as  signally  in  his 
own  career.  No  dangers  have  been  too  threatening  for 
him  to  face,  no  obstacles  too  formidable,  no  tasks  too  la- 
borious, no  heights  too  inaccessible.  His  courage  has, 
indeed,  its  inconvenient  side.  He  begins  to  build  his 
towers  without  counting  the  cost,  and  in  going  to  war  for- 
gets to  calculate  the  relative  strength  of  ten  and  twenty 
thousand.  The  natural  consequence  is  frequent  failure ; 
but  failure  only  strengthens  Mr.  Gladstone's  resolve  and 
stimulates  his  endeavour.  Often  defeated,  he  never  de- 
spairs ;  and  though  his  friends  have  more  than  once  writ- 
ten Requiescat  on  what  they  believed  to  be  his  political 
tomb,  he  persists  in  substituting  Rcsufga?n. 

The  love  of  power  and  the  courage  which  supports  it 
are  allied  in  Mr.  Gladstone  with  a  marked  imperiousness. 
Of  this  quality  there  is  no  trace  in  his  manner,  which  is 
courteous,  conciliatory,  and  even  deferential ;  nor  in  his 
speech,  which  breathes  an  almost  exaggerated  humility. 
But  the  imperiousness  shows  itself  in  the  more  effectual 
form  of  action  ;  in  his  sudden  resolves,  his  invincible  in- 
sistence, his  recklessness  of  consequences  to  himself  and 
his  friends,  his  habitual  assumption  that  the  civilized  world 
and  all  its  units  must  agree  with  him,  his  indignant  aston- 
ishment at  the  bare  thought  of  dissent  or  resistance,  his 


272  MR.   GLADSTONE 

incapacity  to  believe  that  an  overruling  Providence  will 
permit  him  to  be  frustrated  or  defeated. 

It  is  this  last  peculiarity  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  temper  which 
has  exposed  him  to  the  severest  shocks  of  adverse  fate.  His 
friends  and  relations,  his  colleagues  and  supporters,  and 
official  guides,  know  so  well  this  imperious  optimism,  and 
shrink  so  naturally  from  the  consequences  of  disturbing  it, 
that  they  insensibly  fall  into  the  habit  of  assuring  him  that 
everything  is  going  as  he  wishes,  and  that  human  daring 
and  political  perversity  will  not,  in  the  long  run,  venture  to 
withstand  his  wise  and  righteous  will.  It  is  the  inconven- 
ient property  of  those  who  systematically  speak  smooth 
things  sometimes  to  prophesy  deceits;  and  again  and  again, 
as  in  1874  and  1886,  Mr.  Gladstone's  complaisant  counsel- 
lors have  prepared  for  him  a  rude  awakening  from  sweet 
dreams  of  majorities  and  office  to  the  grim  reality  of  de- 
feat and  Opposition. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  love  of  power  is  one  of  the  many  feat- 
ures of  his  character  which  have  been  widely  misconstrued. 
His  political  opponents  cannot  or  will  not  believe  that  it  is 
only  a  synonym  for  disinterested  devotion  to  the  public 
good.  Another  point  in  which  the  general  estimate  of  him 
is  curiously  erroneous  is  his  feeling  about  change.  It  has 
fallen  to  his  lot  to  propose  so  many  and  such  momentous 
alterations  in  our  political  system  that  all  his  enemies,  and 
some  of  his  friends,  have  come  to  regard  him  as  a  man  to 
whom  change  for  its  own  sake  is  agreeable.  Never  was 
a  greater  error.  Mr.  Gladstone  is  essentially  and  funda- 
mentally a  Conservative.  This  temper  of  his  mind  power- 
fully affects  his  feelings  about  great  authors  of  all  types 
and  times.  He  is  a  cavalier  all  over  in  his  devotion  to  Sir 
Walter  Scott.     He  reveres  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  as  a  chief 


A  DISCIPLE   OF  BURKE  273 

exponent  of  the  great  principle  of  Authority.  His  senti- 
ments towards  Edmund  Burke  may  be  given  in  his  own 
words,  addressed  to  tho  writer  of  this  book  in  1884. 

I  turn  from  these  troublesome  reflections  to  say  how  glad 
Cnot  surprised)  I  am  that  Burke  has  a  place  in  your  admira- 
tion, and  on  most  subjects,  as  I  conjecture,  in  your  confidence. 
Yet  I  remember  a  young  Tory's  saying  at  Oxford  he  could 
not  wish  to  be  more  Tory  than  Burke.  He  was  perhaps  the 
maker  of  the  Revolutionary  War  ;  and  our  going  into  that  war 
perhaps  made  the  Reign  of  Terror ;  and,  without  any  '  per- 
haps,' almost  unmade  the  liberties,  the  Constitution,  even  the 
material  interests  and  prosperity  of  our  country.  Yet  I  ven- 
erate and  almost  worship  him,  though  I  can  conceive  its  being 
argued  that  all  he  did  for  freedom,  justice,  religion,  purity  of 
government  in  other  respects  and  other  quarters,  was  less  than 
the  mischief  which  flowed  out  from  the  Reflections. 

I  would  he  were  now  alive. 

His  natural  bias  is  to  respect  institutions  as  they  are, 
and  nothing  short  of  plain  proof  that  their  effect  is  in- 
jurious will  induce  him  to  set  about  reforming  them.  And 
even  when  he  is  impelled  by  strong  conviction  to  undertake 
the  most  fundamental  and  far-reaching  alterations  of  our 
polity,  the  innate  conservatism  of  his  mind  makes  him  try 
to  persuade  himself  that  the  revolution  which  he  contem- 
plates is  in  truth  a  restoration.  Thus,  his  favourite  argu- 
ment for  Home  Rule  is  that  it  is  merely  a  return  to  the 
system  of  government  which  commended  itself  to  the  wis- 
dom of  our  fathers,  and  which  their  presumptuous  children 
heedlessly  set  aside ;  and  he  seeks  to  allay  the  alarms  of 
his  Radical  followers  by  dwelling  on  the  encouraging  pros- 
pect that  an  Irish  Parliament  would  probably  contain  a 
large  majority  of  Conservatives. 

The  Church,  regarded  as  a  divinely-constituted  society, 
18 


274  MR-  GLADSTONE 

has  had  no  more  passionate  defender  than  the  author  of 
'Church  Principles  considered  in  their  Results'  and  'The 
State  in  its  Relations  with  the  Church.'  His  old-world 
devotion  to  the  Throne  has  often  and  severely  tried  the 
patience  of  his  Radical  followers,  as  when,  amid  the  plau- 
dits of  his  foes  and  the  moans  of  his  friends,  he  championed 
the  Royal  Grants  in  1889  His  sentiment  of  loyalty  is 
exceedingly  strong,  and  was  beautifully  expressed  in  the 
letter  which  he  addressed  to  the  eldest  son  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  on  the  attainment  of  his  majority : 

Hawarden  Castle,  January  7,  1S85. 

Sir, — As  the  oldest  among  the  confidential  serv^ants  of  her 
Majesty,  I  cannot  allow  the  anniversary  to  pass  without  a  no- 
tice which  will  to-morrow  bring  your  Royal  Highness  to  full 
age,  and  thus  mark  an  important  epoch  in  your  life.  The 
hopes  and  intentions  of  those  whose  lives  lie,  like  mine,  in  the 
past,  are  of  little  moment ;  but  they  have  seen  much,  and 
what  they  have  seen  suggests  much  for  the  future. 

There  lies  before  your  Royal  Highness  in  prospect  the 
occupation,  I  trust  at  a  distant  date,  of  a  throne  which,  to  me 
at  least,  appears  the  most  illustrious  in  the  world,  from  its  his- 
tory and  associations,  from  its  legal  basis,  from  the  weight  of 
the  cares  it  brings,  from  the  loyal  love  of  the  people,  and  from 
the  unparalleled  opportunities  it  gives,  in  so  many  ways  and 
in  so  many  regions,  of  doing  good  to  the  almost  countless 
numbers  whom  the  Almighty  has  placed  beneath  the  sceptre 
of  England. 

I  fervently  desire  and  pray,  and  there  cannot  be  a  more 
animating  prayer,  that  your  Royal  Highness  may  ever  grow 
in  the  principles  of  conduct,  and  may  be  adorned  with  all  the 
qualities,  which  correspond  with  this  great  and  noble  vocation. 
And,  Sir,  if  sovereignty  has  been  relieved  by  our  modern 
institutions  of  some  of  its  burdens,  it  still,  I  believe,  remains 
true  that  there  has  been  no  period  of  the  world's  history  at 
which  successors  to  the  monarchy  could  more  efficaciously 


'THE   STIFFEST   OF   CONSERVATIVES'  275 

contribute  to  the  stability  of  a  great  historic  system,  depend- 
ent even  more  upon  love  than  upon  strength,  by  devotion  to 
their  duties  and  by  a  bright  example  to  the  country.  This 
result  we  have  happily  been  permitted  to  see,  and  other  gen- 
erations will,  I  trust,  witness  it  anew. 

Heartily  desiring  that  in  the  life  of  your  Royal  Highness 
every  private  and  personal  may  be  joined  with  every  public 
blessing,  I  have  the  honor  to  remain,  Sir,  your  Royal  High- 
ness's  most  dutiful  and  faithful  servant, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 

Even  the  House  of  Lords,  which  has  so  often  mutilated 
and  delayed  great  measures  on  which  he  set  his  heart,  still 
has  a  definite  place  in  his  respect,  if  not  in  his  affection. 
Indeed,  he  attaches  to  the  possession  of  rank  and  what  it 
brings  with  it  an  even  exaggerated  importance. 

In  all  the  petty  details  of  daily  life,  in  his  tastes,  his 
habits,  his  manners,  his  way  of  living,  his  social  prejudices, 
Mr.  Gladstone  is  the  stiffest  of  Conservatives.  Indeed,  he 
not  seldom  carries  his  devotion  to  the  existing  order  to  a 
ludicrous  point,  as  when  he  gravely  laments  the  abolition 
of  the  nobleman's  gown  at  Oxford,  or  deprecates  the  ad- 
mission of  the  general  public  to  Constitution  Hill. 

It  is  true  that  Mr.  Gladstone  has  sometimes  been  forced 
by  conviction  or  fate  or  political  necessity  to  be  a  revo- 
lutionist on  a  large  scale ;  to  destroy  an  Established 
Church;  to  add  two  millions  of  voters  to  the  electorate; 
to  attack  the  parliamentary  union  of  the  Kingdoms.  But, 
after  all,  these  changes  were,  in  their  inception,  distasteful 
to  their  author.  He  has  allowed  us  to  see  the  steps  by 
which  he  arrived  at  the  belief  that  they  were  necessary, 
and,  with  admirable  candour,  has  shown  us  that  he  started 
with  quite  opposite  prepossessions.  His  mind  is  singularly 
receptive,  and  his  whole  life  has  been  spent  in  unlearning 


2/6  MR.    GLADSTONE 

the  prejudices  in  which  he  was  educated.  His  love  of 
freedom  has  steadily  developed,  and  he  has  applied  its 
principles  more  and  more  courageously  to  the  problems  of 
government.  But  it  makes  some  difference  to  the  future 
of  a  democratic  State  whether  its  leading  men  are  eagerly 
on  the  look-out  for  something  to  revolutionize,  or  approach 
a  constitutional  change  by  the  gradual  processes  of  convic- 
tion and  conversion.  It  is  this  consideration  which  makes 
Mr.  Gladstone's  life  and  continued  ascendency  in  the 
Liberal  party  sO  important  to  the  country.  In  spite  of  all 
that  has  come  and  gone,  he  is  a  restraining  and  conserva- 
tive force.  And  those  who  know  him  best,  as  they  peer 
into  the  future,  feel  something  of  that  misgiving  which  filled 
the  air  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  latter  days,  when,  '  all  men 
pointed  to  the  Queen's  white  hairs  and  said,  "  When  that 
snow  melteth  there  will  be  a  flood."  ' 

Mr.  Gladstone's  religiousness,  his  love  of  power,  his 
Conservative  bias,  are  aspects  of  his  character  which  have 
often  been  the  ground  of  debate  and  dispute.  There  can- 
not be  two  opinions  about  his  love  of  beauty.  It  is  a 
many-sided  and  far-reaching  enthusiasm.  Beauty  in  nature, 
in  art,  in  literature,  appeals  to  him  with  irresistible  force. 
For  what  is  merely  rare,  or  curious,  or  costly,  he  does  not 
care  a  jot ;  but  he  kindles  with  contagious  enthusiasm  over 
a  fine  picture,  a  striking  statue,  a  delicate  piece  of  artistic 
workmanship.  Good  music  stirs  him  to  his  depths.  In 
literature  he  exacts  beauty  both  of  form  and  of  substance. 
No  mere  skill  in  character-painting,  or  subtlety  of  analysis, 
or  creative  force,  will  win  his  praise  for  a  writer  who,  like 
George  Eliot,  is  powerful  rather  than  beautiful,  or  dwells, 
however  skilfully,  on  the  repulsive  aspects  of  life  and 
character. 


HOMER   AND   DANTE  2// 

It  is  his  devotion  to  spiritual  and  physical  beauty  which 
has  made  him  a  life-long,  a  passionate,  almost  an  adoring, 
disciple  of  Homer  and  Dante.  With  regard  to  the  former, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  follow  Mr.  Gladstone  in  all  the 
ethnological  and  religious  theories  which,  in  successive 
works,  published  in  1858,  1869,  1876,  and  1890,  he  has 
laid  before  the  world.  Whether  sound  or  erroneous,  they 
are  founded  on  an  absolute  and  detailed  knowledge  of  the 
text — a  commonplace  but  essential  equipment  for  the  task 
of  interpretation  which  even  professional  scholars  too  often 
neglect.  Mr.  Gladstone's  published  studies  in  Homer 
have  received  high  praise  from  such  competent  authorities 
as  Professor  Jebb  and  Professor  Freeman,  though  these 
learned  men  do  not  accept  all  his  theories  or  follow  his 
deductions  from  the  narrative.  He  has  '  done  such  justice 
to  Homer  and  his  age  as  Homer  has  never  received  out 
of  his  own  land.  He  has  vindicated  the  true  position  of 
the  greatest  of  poets  ;  he  has  cleared  his  tale  and  its  actors 
from  the  misrepresentation  of  ages.' 

Speaking  to  the  boys  at  Eton  on  March  14,  1891,  Mr. 
Gladstone  gave  this  curious  fragment  of  autobiography : 

When  I  was  a  boy  I  cared  nothing  at  all  about  the  Ho- 
meric gods.  I  did  not  enter  into  the  subject  until  thirty  or 
forty  years  afterwards,  when,  in  a  conversation  with  Dr.  Pusey, 
who,  like  me,  had  been  an  Eton  boy,  he  told  me,  having  more 
sense  and  brains  than  I  had,  that  he  took  the  deepest  inter- 
est and  had  the  greatest  curiosity  about  these  Homeric  gods. 
They  are  of  the  greatest  interest,  and  you  cannot  really  study 
the  text  of  Homer  without  gathering  fruits ;  and  the  more 
you  study  him  the  more  you  will  be  astonished  at  the  multi- 
tude of  lessons  and  the  completeness  of  the  picture  which  he 
gives  you.  There  is  a  perfect  encyclopaedia  of  human  char- 
acter and  human  experience  in  the  poems  of  Homer,  more 


278  MR.  GLADSTONE 

complete  in  every  detail  than  is  elsewhere  furnished  to  us  of 
Achaian  life. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  love  of  Dante  is  reinforced  by  his 
theological  sense.  At  the  most,  the  theology  of  Homer 
belongs  to  the  region  of  natural  religion  ;  but  in  Dante 
Mr.  Gladstone  finds  a  poet  after  his  own  heart,  in  whom 
passion  and  pathos  and  a  profound  sense  of  the  underlying 
tragedy  of  human  life  are  penetrated  by  the  influence  of 
the  Christian  dogma.  His  sentiments  on  this  head  are 
well  expressed  in  the  following  translation  of  an  Italian 
letter  which,  on  December  20,  1882,  he  addressed  to  Pro- 
fessor Giambattista  Guilioni,  of  Rome  : 

Illustrious  Sir, — Albeit  I  have  lost  the  practice  of  the  Ital- 
ian language,  yet  I  must  offer  you  many,  many  thanks  for 
your  kindness  in  sending  me  your  admirable  work, '  Dante 
Spiegato  con  Dante.'  You  have  been  good  enough  to  call 
that  supreme  poet  '  a  solemn  master  '  for  me.  These  are  not 
empty  words.  The  reading  of  Dante  is  not  merely  a  pleasure, 
a  tour  de  force,  or  a  lesson  ;  it  is  a  vigorous  discipline  for  the 
heart,  the  intellect,  the  whole  man.  In  the  school  of  Dante  I 
have  learned  a  great  part  of  that  mental  provision  (however 
insignificant  it  be)  which  has  served  me  to  make  this  journey 
of  human  life  up  to  the  term  of  nearly  seventy-three  years. 
And  I  should  like  to  extend  your  excellent  phrase,  and  to  say 
that  he  who  labours  for  Dante,  labours  to  serve  Italy,  Christi- 
anity, the  world. — Your  very  respectful  servant, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 

Among  modern  writers  his  love  of  Lord  Tennyson  is 
essentially  due  to  his  love  of  beauty ;  and  his  essay  on 
Tennyson,  published  in  the  '  Quarterly  Review '  for  October 
1859,  may  be  cited  as  a  peculiarly  suggestive  and  delicate 
piece  of  critical  writing. 

In  Mr.  Gladstone's  character  several  seemingly  incon- 


FINANCE   AND   FREE   TRADE  279 

sistent  qualities  are  combined;  and  it  is  curious  to  note 
in  a  temperament  so  highly  emotional,  imaginative,  and 
even  theatrical,  a  strong  cross-current  of  business-like 
instinct.  Those  who  speculate  in  matters  of  race  and 
pedigree  might  be  inclined  to  suggest  that  Mr.  Gladstone 
owes  the  ideal  elements  of  his  nature  to  his  mother's  Celtic 
ancestors,  and  the  practical  elements  to  those  shrewd 
burghers  of  Leith  and  lairds  of  Lanarkshire  from  whom, 
through  his  father,  he  descends.  But,  however  this  may  be, 
Mr.  Gladstone's  taste  for  commercial  enterprise  is  as  clearly- 
marked  a  feature  of  his  character  as  his  rhetorical  fervour 
or  his  dialectical  subtlety. 

One  of  his  colleagues  said  of  him  not  long  ago :  '  The 
only  two  things  Gladstone  really  cares  for  are  the  Church 
and  finance.'  And  though,  when  we  regard  Mr.  Gladstone's 
present  passion  for  Home  Rule,  this  seems  rather  para- 
doxical, still  it  has  a  certain  element  of  truth.  The  Church 
and  finance  are  the  only  two  departments  of  public  affairs 
which  have  interested  him  keenly  and  constantly  from  his 
earliest  days  till  now,  and  with  regard  to  which  his  whole 
course  has  been  consistent.  It  was  in  the  realm  of  finance 
that  his  most  remarkable  achievements  were  won.  He  was 
the  first  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  who  ever  made  the 
Budget  romantic.  He  believes  in  Free  Trade  as  the  gospel 
of  social  salvation.  He  revels  in  figures  ;  and  every  detail 
of  price  and  value,  of  production  and  distribution,  of  money 
and  money's  worth,  and  every  form  of  enquiry  and  specula- 
tion which  tends  to  illustrate  these  subjects,  exercises  a 
resistless  fascination  over  his  mind. 

The  gravity  and  earnestness  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  nature 
are  allied  with  a  strong  temper.  And  there  are  few  more 
serviceable  qualities  than  a  strong  temper  kept  sternly 


280  MR.  GLADSTONE 

under  control.  Such  is  the  case  with  Mr.  Gladstone;  and, 
while  it  is  easy  to  discern  the  passionate  and  impetuous 
nature  as  it  works  within,  it  is  impossible  not  to  admire  the 
vigorous  self-mastery  by  which  it  is  turned  from  harmful  into 
useful  channels.  He  has  a  grand  capacity  for  generous  indig- 
nation, and  nothing  is  finer  than  to  see  the  changing  lights 
and  shades  on  his  mobile  and  expressive  face  when  some 

Tale  of  injury  calls  forth 
The  indignant  spirit  of  the  North. 

The  hawk-like  features  become  more  strongly  marked,  the 
onyx-eyes  flash  and  glow,  the  voice  grows  more  resonant, 
and  the  utterance  more  emphatic.  It  is  droll  to  observe 
the  discomfiture  of  a  story-teller  who  has  fondly  thought  to 
tickle  the  great  man's  sense  of  humour  by  an  anecdote  which 
depends  for  its  point  upon  some  trait  of  cynicism,  baseness, 
or  sharp  practice.  He  finds  his  tale  received  in  grim  silence, 
and  then  perceives  to  his  dismay  that  what  was  intended 
to  entertain  has  only  disgusted.  '  Do  you  call  that  amus- 
ing? I  call  it  devilish,'  was  the  emphatic  comment  with 
which  a  characteristic  story  about  Lord  Beaconsfield  was 
once  received  by  his  eminent  rival. 

In  personal  dealings  Mr.  Gladstone  is  no  doubt  quickly 
roused ;  but  is  placable,  reasonable,  and  always  willing  to 
hear  excuses  or  defence.  And  when  the  course  of  life  is 
flowing  smoothly,  and  nothing  happens  to  disturb  the 
stream,  he  is  delightful  company.  He  has  a  keen  faculty 
for  enjoyment,  great  appreciation  of  civility  and  attention, 
and  a  nature  completely  unspoilt  by  success  and  promi- 
nence and  praise. 

A  most  engaging  quality  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  character  is 
his  courtesy.     It   is  invariable   and  universal.     A  pretty 


PERSONAL   CHARM  28 1 

and  touching  instance  of  it  is  contained  in  the  following 
letter.  A  young  lady  of  Wigan,  who  was  suffering  from 
consumption,  sent  to  Mr.  Gladstone  on  his  birthday,  which 
was  also  her  own,  a  letter  containing  a  bookmark,  on  which 
she  had  embroidered  the  words :  '  The  Bible  our  Guide.' 
She  received  in  return  some  gifts  suitable  to  an  invalid, 
together  with  the  following  letter  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  hand- 
writing : 

Hawarden  Castle,  Chester,  January  i,  1883. 
Dear  Madam, — I  am  greatly  touched  by  your  kindness  in 
having  worked  a  bookmark  for  me,  under  the  circumstances 
at  which  you  glance  in  such  feeling  and  simple  terms.  May 
the  guidance  which  you  are  good  enough  to  desire  on  my 
behalf  avail  you  fully  on  every  step  of  that  journey  in  which 
if  I  do  not  precede,  I  cannot  but  shortly  follow  you. — I  re- 
main, dear  Madam,  faithfully  yours, 

W.  E.  Gladstone. 

Mr.  Gladstone  has  the  ceremonious  manners  of  the  old 
school,  and  alike  to  young  and  old,  men  and  women,  he 
pays  the  compliment  of  assuming  that  they  are  on  his  own 
intellectual  level  and  furnished  with  at  least  as  much  in- 
formation as  will  enable  them  to  follow  and  to  understand 
him.  Indeed,  his  manner  towards  his  intellectual  inferiors 
is  almost  ludicrously  humble.  He  consults,  defers,  en- 
quires; argues  his  point  where  he  would  be  fully  justified  in 
laying  down  the  law;  and  eagerly  seeks  information  from 
the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings.  Still,  after  all,  he  is 
frankly  human,  and  it  is  part  of  human  nature  to  like 
acquiescence  better  than  contradiction,  and  to  rate  more 
highly  than  they  deserve  the  characters  and  attainments 
of  even  tenth-rate  people  who  agree  with  one.  Hence  it 
arises  that  all  Mr.  Gladstone's  ":eese  are  swans.     He  shows 


282  MR.  GLADSTONE 

what  Bishop  Wilberforce  called  '  a  want  of  clear  sharp- 
sightedness  as  to  others,'  and  he  is  consequently  exposed 
to  the  arts  of  scheming  mediocrities,  on  whose  interested 
opinions  he  is  apt  to  place  a  fatally  implicit  reliance. 

In  order  to  form  the  highest  and  the  truest  estimate  of 
Mr.  Gladstone's  character  it  is  necessary  to  see  him  at 
home.  There  are  some  people  who  appear  to  the  best 
advantage  on  the  distant  heights,  elevated  by  intellectual 
eminence  above  the  range  of  scrutiny,  or  shrouded  from 
too  close  observation  by  the  misty  glamour  of  great  station 
and  great  affairs.  Others  are  seen  at  their  best  in  the 
middle  distance  of  official  intercourse  and  in  the  friendly 
but  not  intimate  relations  of  professional  and  public  life. 
But  the  noblest  natures  are  those  which  are  seen  to  the 
greatest  advantage  in  the  close  communion  of  the  home, 
and  here  Mr.  Gladstone  is  pre-eminently  attractive.  His 
extraordinary  vigour  and  youthfulness  of  mind  and  body, 
his  unbroken  health  and  buoyant  spirits,  form  an  atmos- 
phere of  infectious  vitality.  He  delights  in  hospitality,  and, 
to  quote  a  phrase  of  Sydney  Smith's,  '  receives  his  friends 
with  that  honest  joy  which  warms  more  than  dinner  or 
wine.'  The  dignity,  the  order,  the  simplicity,  and,  above 
all,  the  fervent  and  manly  piety  of  his  daily  life,  form  a 
spectacle  far  more  impressive  than  his  most  magnificent 
performances  in  Parliament  or  on  the  platform.  He  is  the 
idol  of  those  who  are  most  closely  associated  with  him, 
whether  by  the  ties  of  blood,  of  friendship,  or  of  duty ;  and 
perhaps  it  is  his  highest  praise  to  say  that  he  is  not  un- 
worthy of  the  devotion  which  he  inspires. 


INDEX 


ABE 

Abercorn,  Lord,  i6 

Aberdeen,  Lord,  47,  in,  113,  117,  118, 
123,  125,  127,  130,  133,  141 

Aberdeen,  freedom  of,  221 

Abolition  of  slavery,  21,  29,  31,  134 

Accident  while  shooting,  78 

Acland,  Sir  Thos.,  17,  20,  48,  61 

Address  at  Newark,  28-29.  See  also 
Speeches 

Affirmation  Bill,  268-269 

Agricultural  interest,  ii6 

'Alabama,'  109,  219-221 

Albany,  Mr.  G.'s  rooms  in  the,  47-48 

Albert,  Prince,  and  Mr.  G's  first  Bud- 
get, 122;  Mr.  G.  leader  of  the  House, 
148  ;  Mr.  G.  and,  at  Manchester,  154 

Albert  Victor,  letter  to  Prince,  274-275 

Alderley  Edge,  16 

Alexander,  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  64-65 

Alexandria,  bombardment  of,  250 

Alston,  21 

Althorp,  Lord,  31,  36,  40-42 

American  Civil  War,  154-156,  2x9-221 

—  soldiers,  enlistment  of,  134 

Ancestry  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  1-3 

'Ancient  and  Modern  Genius  Com- 
pared,' 13 

Anglicans,  112 

Anti-Corn  Law  League,  79-80 

Appropriation  Clause,  I  rish  Church  Bill, 

36>  47  ... 

Army,  commissions  in,  218 
Arnold,  Dr.,  58 
Arthurshiel,  2 
Asaph,  Bishop  of,  16 
Ashley,  Lord.    See  '  Lord  Shaftesbury ' 
Athanasian  Creed,  223,  225 
Australian  legislatures,  88 
Austria  and  Prussia,  1S8 
Autobiography,  fragment  of,  277 


Baptism,  Rev.  J.  C.  Gorham  and,  90 
Bath  and  Wells,  Bishop  of,  8 
Baxter,  Mr.,  220 

Beaconsfield,  Lord.     See  'P..  Disraeli' 
'Behind  the  Scenes  in  English  Politics,' 

by  N.  Senior,  129-130 
Bentinck,  Lord,  123 
Beresford,  Major,  117 


CAV 

Bethell,  Sir  R.,  134       " 

Bible,  Mr.  G.  and  the,  24;  revision  of 

the,  217 
Biggar,  Lanarkshire,  i,  2 
Birthplace  of  Mr.  G.,  i,  2 
Blachford,  Lord.  8 
Blackheath,  speech  on,  222-223 
Blomfield,  Dr.,  90-92 
Boards  of  Education,  61 
'  Bouverie,  Bartholomew'  (W.  E.  G.'s 

pseudonym),  12 
Bradley,  Wm.,  4 
Bright,  Mr.  H.  A.,  225 

—  Mr.  J.,  124,  160,  1S2,  190,  194,  205, 
210,  211,  236,  255 

Briscoe,  Rev.  Robt.,  19 
Bruce,  Hon.  J.,  8,  9,  20 

—  Hon.  F.,  9,  20 

Buccleuch,  Duke  of,  82,  194-195,  246 

Buckingham,  Duke  of,  144,  146 

Budgets— of  1841,  63;  Mr.  Disraeli's 
first  and  second,  115-116;  Mr.  G.'s 
first.  118-123;  war,  125-126;  of  1853 
125-126;  of  i860,  148-150;  of  1861, 
152-153 ;  of  1885,  251 

Bulgaria,  243-245,  268 

Bunsen,  Baron,  58,  60,  64-65 

Burke,  Mr.,  and  the  Turkish  Empire, 
128;  249,  273 

Burton,  Dr.,  20 

Butler's  (Bishop)  doctrine,  24 


Cambridge,  J.  Milnes-Gaskell  and,  15 

Canada,  Government  of,  48 

Canning,  Mr.,  Sir  John  Gladstone  and, 

4;  tribute  to  memory  of,   13;   16,  21  ; 

and  Oxford  University,  84,  183,  184, 

262 

—  Charles,  8,  9 
Cardwell,  Mr.,  218 
Carlingford,  Lord,  254 
Carlton  Club,  117 

Carlyle,  T.,  and  England  in  1832,  27 

Carnarvon,  Lord,  193 

Carter,  Mr.,  at  Eton,  6 

Catholic  Emancipation,  21,  23  ;  revival, 

53.  >'? 
Cavendish,  Wm.,  8 

—  Lord  F.,  249 


284 


MR.    GLADSTONE 


CEC 

Cecil,  Lord  R.     See  '  Lord  Salisbury ' 

Chalmers.  Dr.,  g; 

Chamberlain,  Mr.,  252,  255 

Chandos,  Lord,  144,  147 

'Chapter  of  Autobiography,'  A.,  204 

Chelmsford,  Lord,  197 

China,  62 

Cliinese,  the,  and  the  Arrow,  134 

Christ  Church,  Oxford,  16-24 

'Christopher  Inn,'  Eton,  6,  7 

Church,  Dean,  and  i\l\:  G.,  246 

Church,  the,  in  1809,  3  ;  a  divine  society, 
23 

Cluircli  of  England,  68-69 ;  and  the  Gor- 
hnm  judgment.90-92,98-gg;  Dr.New 
man  and,  96;  laity  in  the,  115;  and 
Lord  Aberdeen,  1 18;  Mr.  G. and,  131- 
132,  J36-138;  and  the  Divorce  Act, 
136;  Dr.  Pusey  and  the,  1 72 ;  1 92, 240- 
241 

—  in  Ireland,  31,  33-36,  40-41,  75  ;  Lord 
J.  Russell  and,  47;  163-165,  1S9,  19S- 
204,  207,  210,  211,  268 

Church  and  State,  Book  on,  S3-5g,  66, 

274 
'  Church  cess,'  34-35 
'  Church  Principles  considered  in  their 

Results,'  treatise  on,  61-62,  274 
Church  Rates,  48,  88;  bill  for  abolish- 
ing, igS 
Church  Temporalities  Bill,  33 
Civil  War  in  America,  154-156 
Civis  Roniantis  Sinn,  104-109 
Clan  Donachie,  A.  Robertson  of  the,  2 
Clarendon,   Lord,    149,   i8o,   J96,   216, 

219 
Clark,  Dr.,  232 
Classical  Education,  153 

—  honours,  1S-19 
Cleveland,  Duke  of,  180 
Clumber,  177 
Cobden,  Mr.,  148 

Coercion  -Bills,  34,  40-41,  83,  248-249 
Coleridge,  H.  N.,-6i 

—  Lord,  86 

—  Sir  John,  210 
Collier,  Sir  R.,  224 
Colliery  explosion,  223-224 
Colvile,  Sir  Jas.,  8,  12 
Conspiracy,  the  law  of,  13S-139 
Constitution  Hill,  275 

'  Contemporary  Review,'  238,  240 
Corn  Laws,  repeal  of  the,  82-83 

—  Trade,  Lord  John  Russell  and,  63 
Cory,  Mr.  W.,  vi 

Courtney,  Mr.,  254 

Cowper,  Hon.  \Vm.,  ir 

Cox's  'Black  Gowns  and  Red  Coats,' 30 

Cranborne,  Lord.  See 'Lord  Salisbury' 

Cranbrook,  Lord,  168,  211 

Crimean  War,  123-126,  128 

Crime  in  Leinster,  33-34 

Crimes  Act,  249,  251 

Cross,  Lord.  204 

Cuddesdon  Vicarage,  20 


ELG 

Daily  Gra/tJiic,  life  at  Hawarden,  260- 

264 
Dante,  Mr.  G.'s  love  of,  278 
Davis,  Jefferson,  155 
Debate,  Mr.  G.  in,  10.  38 
Debates  of  the  Eton  Society,  9-12,  38 
Deceased  Wife's  Sister,  88 
Demerara,  slaves  in,  32-33 
Democracy,  Mr.  R.  Lowe  and,  182 
Denison,  Archdeacon,  8,  17,  118,  131 

—  Mr.  Speaker,  15S 

Derby.  Lord.     See  '  Lord  Stanley  ' 

—  election,  117 
Derivation  of  '  Gledstanes,'  i 
Devonshire,  Duke  of,  8 
Dillvvyn,  Mr.,  163-164,  igS 
Disraeli,  B.,  and  the  crisis  of  1834,  42- 

45  ;  and  Mr.  Villiers,  79  ;  and  Eccle- 
siastical Titles  Bill,  1 13  ;  in  office,  1 15  ; 
Budgets  of,  115-116;  and  Lord  Aber- 
deen's Ministry,  127,  130;  leader  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  138-140;  and 
the  franchise,  143  ;  179-180,  183,  190; 
Reform  Bill  of,  193-195  ;  Lord  Clar- 
endon and.  ig6  :  Prime  Minister,  197- 
198,  202  ;  the  fall IMall  Gazette  and, 
197-198;  resignation  of,  204,  247  ;  and 
Bishop  Wilberforce, 205;  Reform  Bill, 
212  ;  and  education  in  Ireland,  226, 
and  Sir  William  Harcourt,  235-236  ; 
and  Bulgaria,  243-245  ;  national  me- 
morial to,  271 

Disraeli's  '  Life  of  Lord  George  Ben- 
tinck,'  80 

Divorce  Bill,  134-136,  268 

Dollinger,  Dr.,  76,  267 

Don  Pacifico,  102-103 

Doyle,  Sir  F.,  8,  ii;  anecdote  of,  12, 
14-17,  20 

Dunkellin,  Lord,  1S6 

Durham,  Bishop  of,  112 

—  Lord,  40 


EA.STERN  Question,  109,  268 

East  Indian  planters,  48,  49 

Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill,  113,  217 

Economy,  Mr.  G.  and  public,  142-143 

Edinburgh  county,  246 

'  Edinburgh  Review,'  216-217 

Edinburgh  University,  Lord  Rector  of, 
14S,  165 

Education  of  the  poor,  10;  213-214  ;  in 
Ireland,  69-71,  225-226;  for  Children 
in  Factories  (Bill),  68 

Educational  machinery  of  the  Church, 
61 

Edward  I.,  H.  de  Gledstane  and,  i 

Egypt,  249-251 

Elections.  See  '  Greenwich,'  '  Mid- 
Lothian,'  '  Newark,'  '  Oxford  Uni- 
versity,' 'South  Lancashire' 

Elementary  Education,  Mr.  Forster 
and,  214 

Elgin,  Lord,  8,  17, 


INDEX 


285 


ELL 

Ellenbnrough,  Lord,  139 
Elliot,  Sir  Frederic,  129-130 
Emancipation  of  slaves,  33 
England  in  iSog,  3;  in  1S32,  2^-27;  in 
1S34,  42-45  ;  and  Crimean  War,  125- 
126;  and  foreign  manufactures,  147; 
and  America,  154-155  ;  south  of,  and 
Keform.  1S8 
English  Education  Bill,  213 
Epping  Forest,  the  Queen  and,  249 
Essay  Society  at  Oxford,  20,  93 
Essays:  on  Socrates,  20;  on  Divorce, 
135  ;  on  Prof.  Seeley's  book,  178;  on 
'  Ritual    and    Ritualism,'    238  :    on 
Church  of  England,  240  ;  on  Vatican- 
ism, 242  ;  on  Tennyson,  27S 
Eton,    5-16,    23  ;    visit   to,   62-63  ;    in 

March,  1S91,  277 
'Eton  Miscellany,' 9,  12-15 
Eton  Society,  debates  of  the,  9 
Europe  in  i8og,  3 
Evangelicals  at  Oxford,  23 
Ewelme  scandal,  223-224 
Examinations  at  Oxford,  18-19 
Exeter  College,  Oxford,  Rector  of,  167 


Farrer,  Sir  Thos.,  227 

Fasque,  60 

Fenian  prisoners,  the,  217 

Financial  statements,  122 

Foreign  policy  of  Mr.  Disraeli,  245-246 

Forster,  Mr.  W.  E.,  iSi,  214,  226, 
248 

France,  in  1832,  26-27 ;  and  Greece, 
103  ;  Louis  Napoleon  and,  114;  and 
Crimean  War,  125  ;  and  British 
manufactures,  149-150;  and  Prussia, 
216 

Franchise,  the,  143,  161-163,  192-193 

Freeman,  Professor,  277 

■  Free  Thought  in  Religion,"  225 

Free  Trade,  88-89,  279 


Gaisfokd,  Dr.,  16,  lis 
Games  at  Eton,  8-9 
Gillson,  Mr..  29 
Gladstone,  Mr.  Henry,  263 

—  Robert,  6 

—  Sir  Thomas,  6,  60 

—  Sir  John,  2-5 ;  and  Deraerara  slaves, 
32-33 ;  60 

—  William  Ewart,  birth  of,  1-3  ;  his 
father,  4-5  ;  at  Eton,  5-16  ;  at  Oxfoid, 
16-25.  37-38  ;  and  Reform  Bill,  21  ; 
choice  of  a  profession,  24-25  ;  in  Italy, 
25,  27  ;  at  the  age  of  twenty-two, 
28 ;  and  Newark  election,  2S-30 ; 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  31; 
and  Demerara  slaves,  32  -  33,  48  ; 
early  style  of  oratory,  38-39  ;  a  junior 
Lord  of  the  Treasury,  45-47  ;  Under- 
Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  47;  out  of 
office,  47-48;    and  Rev.  S.  Wilber- 


GLA 

force,  49-52,  68-69;  book  on  Church 
and  State,  53-59,  61-62  ;  and  Mr.  J. 
Hope.  55-58,  65,  73-7S,  93-'"i  ;  mar- 
riage, 60-61  ;  visit  to  Eton.  62-63  i 
Vice-President  of  the  Board  of  Trade, 
64 ;  and  Baron  Bunsen,  64-65 ;  and 
the  tariff,  67,  71  :  a  member  of  the 
Cabinet,  68;  and  Maynooth,  69-71, 
74  ;  retirement  from  the  Ministry,  71- 
73  ;  visit  to  Munich,  76-78;  accident 
to,  78 ;  Secretary  of  State  for  the 
Colonies,  82  ;  and  the  repeal  of  the 
Corn  Laws,  82-83 :  and  Oxtord  Uni- 
versity, 83-86  :  division  of  career,  86- 
89  ;  domestic  bereavement,  89  ;  and 
the  Gorham  judgment,  90-98 ;  and 
Cardinal  Manning.  92  ;  and  Mrs. 
Maxwell  Scott,  93-98,  loi  ;  and  Don 
Pacifico,  102-109;  and  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  no;  at  Naples,  iio-iii;  and 
Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill,  113;  and 
Mr.  Disraeli's  Budget.  116;  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer,  1 17-1 18, 
127-129,  144,  178,  230:  insulted  at 
Carlton  Club.  117  ;  first  Budget,  118- 
123;  and  Lord  Aberdeen,  123;  and 
Crimean  War,  124-128;  a  private 
member,  130,  132,  133,  140;  religious 
opinions  of,  131-132,  136-138;  and 
the  Divorce  Bill,  134-136;  and  the 
law  of  conspiracy,  13S-139:  and  the 
Ionian  Isles,  142;  and  public  econo- 
my, 142  ;  and  the  Franchise,  143, 
161-163  ;  and  Oxford  University,  144- 
146,  164-173,  175;  and  Lord  Palm- 
erston,  147,  159-161 ;  and  music,  148; 
and  Edinburgh  University,  148,  165  ; 
and  the  Budget  of  i860,  148- 151; 
of  1S61,  152-153  ;  and  the  American 
Civil  War,  154-155;  and  the  Irish 
Church,  163-165,  198-204,  207-208, 
211;  at  Manchester  and  Liverpool, 
173-175;  and  Duke  of  Newcastle, 
177;  and  Lord  J.  Russell,  177-178, 
196;  Leader  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, 178,  180;  and  Reform  Bill  of 
1866,  181-186.  igi-194,  217-21S;  at 
Rome,  189;  Disraeli  and,  193,  270- 
271;  and  Church  rates,  198;  and 
South  Lancashire,  203-204 ;  Prime 
Minister,  204,  247,  254;  visit  to  Hat- 
field, 205;  and  Irish  Land  i!ill,  213- 
214  ;  and  Lord  Shaftesbury,  215  :  and 
Dean  Stanley,  217;  and  Germany, 
France,  &c.,  216-217  ;  and  America, 
219-221  ;  and  Home  Rule,  221-223, 
254-258  ;  and  education  in  Ireland, 
225-226  ;  and  Bishop  Wilberforce, 
227  ;  end  of  first  administration,  228- 
230,  233  ;  and  Lord  (Jranville,  232- 
233  ;  and  Public  Worship  Regulation 
Bill,  234-238  ;  and  theological  contro- 
versies, 238-240;  and  Church  of  Eng- 
land, 240-242,  273,  274-279;  and  the 
Eastern  Qitestion,  244-245;  and  Ire- 


286 


MR.  GLADSTONE 


GLA 

land, 33-s6, 247-249, 251, 255-258 ;  and 
Egypt,  250-251 ;  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  marriage,  259-260  ;  daily  life  at 
Hawarden,  260-264,  281-282;  analy- 
sis of  character,  265-282  ;  religious- 
ness, 265-266,  269  ;  personal  habits, 
266  ;  and  Nonconformists,  267-268  ; 
and  religious  bearing  of  political  ques- 
tions, 268-269;  love  of  power,  270- 
272;  temper  of,  271-272,279-280;  and 
Prince  Albert  Victor,  274-275  ;  con- 
servative instincts  of,  275 ;  love  of 
beauty,  276-278;  and  finance,  279; 
courtesy  of,  280-281.  See  also  '  Elec- 
tions,' 'Essays,'  "Letters,"  'Speeches' 

Gladstone,  Mrs.,  60,  86,  89 

Gladstone,  J.,  2 

Gladstones,  Thomas,  2 

Gledstanes,  family  and  estate  of,  1-2 

Glynne,  Sir  S.  R.,  60 

—  Miss  Catherine,  60 

Glynne  library,  at  Hawarden,  261 
Godley,  Mr.  Arthur,  vi 
Gordon,  General,  250 

—  Sir  Arthur,  123 

Gorham,  Rev.  G.  C.,  90-92,  98 
Government  of  Ireland  Bill,  254-255 
Grafton,  Duke  of,  12 
Graham,  Sir  James,  41,  117,  128,  133, 

136-13S;  and  Mr.  Greville,  122-123, 

130-131 
Grant  (Bishop  of  Southwark),  59 
Granville,  Lord,  144,  152,  216,  227,  232- 

233.  239.  247 
Greece  and  the  Ionian  Isles,  141-142 
Greek  Church  at  Jerusalem,  124-125 
Greek  Government  and  Don  Pacifico, 

102-103 
Greenwich,  204,  222,  230-231,  246 
Grenville,  house  of,  60 
Greville,  Mr.  Charles,  67,  72,  117  ;  and 

Sir  James  Graham,  122-123, 130-131 ; 

133.  '34.  IJ9.  149 
Grey,  Lord,  32,  35;  his  Cabinet,  39-41 
Guilioni,  Professor  G.,  278 


Habeas  Corpus  Act,  34 

Halifax,  Lord,  22 

Hallam,  Arthur,  8,  12,  14,  15,  21,  29,  93 

—  Mr.  H.  Fitzmaurice,  63 
Hamilton,  Bishop,  7 

—  Mr.  Edward,  vi,  8 

—  Duke  of,  17 
Handley,  9 

Hanmer,  Lord  J.,  8,  12 
Hannah,  Dr.,  164-165,  igg 
Harcourt,  Sir  Wm.,  235-237 
Harrowby,  Lord.  61 

Hartington,  Lord,  maiden   speech   of, 

144  ;  243-244  ;  247  ;  254,  255,  258 
Hatton's,  Miss,  at  Eton,  9 
Hawarden  Castle,  60 ;  life  at,  260-264 
Hawkins,  Dr.,  145-146 
Hawtrey,  Mr.,  7 


LET 

Hayward,  Mr.  Abraham,  158 

Herbert,  Sidney,  17,  117,  128,  133,  262 

Herschell,  Lord,  254 

Hervey,  Lord  Arthur,  7,  8 

High  Church  party  at  Oxford,  23 

Hodgson,  9 

Holland,  Sir  H.,  158 

Homer,  Mr.  G.  and,  277-278 

Home  Rule  for  Ireland,  109,  221-223, 

268,  273,  279;  Bill,  248,  253-258 
Hope-Scott,  Jas.,  8,  17,  53  ;  letters  to, 

55,  57.  58,  65,  70,  73-75  ;  86;  93-ior 
Houghton,  Lord,  17,  48,   58,  181,  188, 

193-203 
Household  suffrage,  195 
Howick,    Lord,    32-33.       See   '  Lord 

Grey ' 
Hudson,  Sir  Jas.,  42 
Hume,  Mr.,  36-37 
Huskisson,  Mr.,  16 


Imperialism,  Mr.  Disraeli's,  245-246 

Income-tax,  118-121,  230 

Indian  Mutiny,  139 

Inglis,  Sir  Robt.,  86 

Intellectual  effects  produced  on  Mr.  G. 
at  Oxford,  22 

Ionian  Isles,  141-142 

Ireland,  in  1832,26-27;  31,33-36,64,75; 
Catholics  in,  75  ;  education  in,  69-71, 
225-226;  and  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill, 
113  ;  213-214,  221,  223,  247-249,  251, 
254-258  ;  Bill  for  government  of,  254- 
255 

Irish  Church  Establishment,  34-36, 163- 
165,  189,  198-204,  207,  210,  211,  26S; 
Bill,  207-208,  210-211 

—  Crimes  Act,  249,  251 

—  Land  Bill,  213-214,  248,  257 

—  potato  famine,  81 
Italy,  25,  27,  III 


James,  Sir  H.,  254 
Jebb,  Professor,  277 
Jerusalem,  Anglican  Bishopric  at,  64- 

65  ;    Dr.    Newman    and,    96 ;    holy 

places  of,  124 
Jewish  disabilities,  21 
Jews  in  Parliament,  67,  88 


Keate,  Dr.,  6 
Keble,  Rev.  J.,  35-36 
Kinglake,  A.,  8.  10 
Knapp,  Rev.  H.  H.,  tutor,  6 


Leader,  Mr.  J.  T.,  20,  93 

Legacy  duty,  118 

Leinster,  crime  in,  33-34 

Letters :  to  Bishop  Wilberforce,  50-52, 
68-69,  75-76,  89,  166, 167, 170-172  ;  to 
James  Hope,  55-58,65,  73-7S;  to  Mr. 


INDEX 


287 


LEW 

Murray,  65-66  ;  re  MajTiooth,  70 ;  to 
Dr.  C.  Wordsworth,  84-S5  ;  to  Dr. 
Blomfield,  90-92  ;  to  Mrs.  Ma.wvell- 
Scott,  93-99;  to  Dr.  Skinner,  114- 
115;  to  Archdeacon  Denison,  131- 
132;  on  his  religious  opinions,  136- 
13S;  to  Dr.  Hawkins,  145-147;  on 
classical  education,  153-154;  to  Dr. 
Hannah  on  the  Irish  Church,  164- 
165  ;  to  Rector  of  Exeter  College,  167; 
to  Lord  J.  Russell,  177-178;  to  Lord 
Shaftesbury,  215;  to  Mr.  Whalley, 
221  ;  to  Lord  Granville,  232-233,  239; 
to  Prince  Albert  Victor,  274-275  ;  to 
young  lady  at  Wigan,  2S0-  2S1 

Lewis,  Sir  G.  C,  S,  17,  133 

Libberton,  parish  of,  i 

Liddell,  H.  G.,  17,  20 

Lincoln,  Lord,  16,  20,  28,  82 

—  Dean  of,  158 

Liverpool,  birthplace  of  Mr.  Gladstone, 
I ;  John  Gladstone  at,  2  ;  bribery  and 
corruption  at,  33  ;  speech  at  the  Col- 
legiate Institution,  67;  college,  225 

London  and  the  Reform  Dill,  kSS 

—  Bishop  of,  and  St.  Alban's,  Holborn, 
238 

—  house,  Mr.  G.'s,  60 
Longley,  Archbishop,  192 
Lushington,  Dr.,  131-132 
Lyndhurst,  Lord,  42,  151 
Lyttelton,  Lord,  60,  61,  62 
Lytton,  Lord,  142 

Lytton's,  Lord,  'New  Timon,'  6 


Macaijlay,  Lord,  on  Ireland,  33  ;  and 

Mr.  G.'s  book,  59;  and  China,  62 
McCarthy's,  J.,  '  History  of  Our  Own 

Times,'  vi 
Macclesfield,  16 
Maiden  speech  at  0.\ford  Union,  21  ; 

in  House  of  Commons,  32-33 
Mahnesbury,  Lord,  68,  115,  133,  148, 

202 
Malt,  duty  on,  116 
Manchester,  nominated  for,  49;  address 

at,  154;   speech  at  Free  Trade  Hall, 

173-174 
Manning,  Cardinal,  17,  20,  24,  53,  59, 

70,  92,  99;  letter  to  Mrs.   G  ,  259- 

260 
Mansel,  Professor,  144 
Marriage  of  Mr.  G.,  60-61 ;  fiftieth  an- 
niversary of,  259-260 
—  Divorce  Bill  and,  134-135,  26S 
Mathematical  honours,  19 
Maurice,  Rev.  F.  D.,  20,  61-62,  S5-S6, 

195-196 
Maxwell-Scott,  Mrs.,  93-98,  loi 
Maynooth  College,  69-71,  74,  85,  199 
Melbourne,  Lord,  41-42 
Miall,  Mr.  Edward,  215 
Mid  Lothian,  246 
Military  organization,  218 


PAM 

Militia,  reorganizing  of  the,  its 
Millais,  Sir  J.,  -^63 
Milnes-Gaskell,  J.,  S,  9,  12,  15 
Moberly,  Dr.,  85 
Molesworth,  Su-  \Vm.,  117,  146 
Moncrieff,  H.,  20 
Monteagle,  Lord,  151 
Moiiey,  Mr.  John.  254 
Mount-Temple,  Lord,  11 
Munich,  76 

Murchison,  Sir  Roderick,  6 
Murray,  Mr.  J.,  65-66 
Music,  Mr.  G.  and,  14S 


Napi-ks,  IlO-III 
Napoleon  in  i8og,  3 

—  Louis,  114.  13S,  14S 
Navarino,  battle  of,  16 
Neapolitan  Government,  the,  iii 
Negro  melodies,  148 
Newark,  28-29,  45-46,  49,  64,  82 
Newcastle,  Duke  of,  16,  2S-29,  S4i  62, 

82,  117;  death  of,  177;  262 

—  Scholarship  at  Eton,  62,  63 

—  speech  at,  155 

Newman,  Cardinal,  23,  53,  54,  59,  61, 

94-97 

'Nineteenth  Century,'  Mr.  G.  on  libra- 
ries, 261 

Nonconformists  ;  and  the  Universities, 
36-3S;  Lord  Shaftesbury  and,  214- 
216;  Mr.  G.  and,  266-268 

Nonhbrook,  Lord,  254 

Northcote,  Sir  S.,  66,  164, 179-180,  220 


O'CoNNELL,  Daniel,  31,  35 

'Ode  to  the  Shade  of  Wat  Tyler,'  13- 
14 

Oratory.  Mr.  G.'s  early  style  of,  38-39 

Orsini,  Felice,  138 

O" Sullivan,  W.  H.,  249 

Oxford,  Mr.  G.  at,  16-24,  37-3S  ;  Lord 
Houghton  at,  17;  Mr.  G.'s  rooms  at, 
17;  Kebleat.  35-36:  Ireland  Scholar- 
ship at, 38  ;  the  Bidding  Prayer  at,  269 

—  University,  83-S6,  115,  117-118,  134, 
144-147,  164-173,  175 

Oxnam,  Mr.  N.,20 


Pall  Mall  Gazette  and  Disraeli  as 
Prime  Minister,  197-198 

Palmer,  Mr.,  167 

—  .Sir  R.  (Lord  Selbonie\  211 

Palmerston,  Lord,  and  Oxford,  37-38 ; 
and  Greek  Government,  102-104. 108- 
log:  III,  114-115.  '25>  '27>  i33.  '35- 
138,  144,  147,  150,  151,  156-160,  163, 
165,  168;  death  of,  176-177;  and  'ten- 
ant right'  in  Ulster,  213 

Pamphlet  on' Recent  Commercial  Legis- 
lation, 'S3;  on  'The  Vatican  Decrees, 
&c.'  242 


288 


MR.    GLADSTONE 


PAP 

Paper  Duty  Bill,  149-152 

Parliamentary  oath,  84 

—  Reform.     See  '  Reform  Bills ' 

Parnell,  Mr.,  248 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  22 ;  and  Catholic 
claims,  23  ;  31,  5S;  administration  of, 
42-47  ;  and  the  iSii  Budget,  63-64  ; 
and  education  in  Ireland,  69-70;  and 
the  ItiiU  famine,  81-82;  retirement 
of,  83,  86;  death  of,  no 

■ —  General,  193 

Phillimore,  Sir  R.,  16 

Phillpotts,  Bishop,  90 

Phoenix  Park  murder,  249 

Pio  Nono  (see  also  "  Pope  '),  iSg 

Pitt,  Mr.,  38  ;  and  taxation,  119 

Poem  by  Mr.  G.  in  '  Eton  Miscellany,' 

Ponsonby,  Sir  H.,  254 

Poor  in  England,  the.  29,  31 

Pope,  the,  and  a  Roman  Hierarchy  in 

England,  112  ;  Mr  G  and,  189 
Potter,  Mr.  Rupert,  vi 
Praed,  Mr.  W.  M.,6i 
Protection,  no 
Protestants,  1 12 
Prussia  and  Austria,  1S8 ;  and  France, 

216 
Pseudonym,   Mr.  G.  s,  in  'The   Eton 

Miscellany,'  12 
Public  Schools,  Royal  Commission  on, 

'53 
Public  speaking,  early  style  of,  39,  67 
PublicWorship  Regulation  Bill, 234-238 
Pusey,  Dr.,  20,  172,  277 


'QuARTEHLY  Review,'  essay  on  Di- 
vorce, 135  ;  on  the  law  of  Conspiracy, 
13S 

of  July,   1867,  Lord   Salisbury's 

article,  193 

1859,  278 


Ragman  Roll,  i 

'  Recent  Commercial  Legislation,'  83 

Red  Club,  the,  29 

Reform  Bill,  21,  28,  39-40;  Peel  and, 
45,  46  :  146,  147  ;  in  j86o,  156-  157  ; 
Lord  Russeil  and,  178-179;  of  1 866, 
181-186;  Disraeli's,  190-195;  202,  203 

Regulation  of  the  Irish  Church  Bill, 
34-36 

Reid,  Mr.  Stuart,  v 

Religious  effects  produced  on  Mr.  G. 
at  Oxford,  22-23 

Reporters,  gallery  for,  in  the  House  of 
'      Commons,  47 

Richard,  Mr.  H,  220 

Richmond,  Duke  of  41 

Ripon,  Lord,  41,  67 

'  Ritual  and  Ritualism,'  article  in  '  Con- 
temporary Review,'  238,  240 

Ritualists,  the,  238 


SPE 

Robertson,  Andrew,  2 
Roebuck,  Mr.,  104,  126-127 
Rogers,  Frederic  (Lord  Blachford),  8, 
20 

—  Rev.  J.  Guinness,  267 

Rome,  Sir  R.  Peel  at,  42-45;  Mr.  G.'s 
visit  to,  59-60,  89  ;  the  Court  of,  88  ; 
Church  of,  at  Jerusalem,  124-125 

Routh,  Dr.,  23,  86 

Royal  Academy  of  1S72,  225 

—  Agricultural  Society's  Council,  81 

—  Commission  on  Public  Schools,  153 

—  grants,  259,  274 
Ruskin,  Mr.,  263 

Russell.  Lord  J.,  and  the  Irish  Church, 
47  ;  and  the  Budget  of  1841,  63  ;  and 
the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  82,  83  ; 
and  the  Pope,  112-113  ;  115.  125-127, 
134,  143.  144-  '47.  '52.  >5^  "78,  184- 
186,  188;  retirement  of,  196;  217, 
218,  231 

Russia :  and  Greece,  103 ;  and  the 
Ciimean  War,  125,  128 

Rutland,  Duke  of,  64,  152-153 

St.  Andrews,  Bishop  of,  16,  20 
Salisbury,  Lord,  152,  193-194,  205,  211, 
251-252,  258 

—  Bishop  of,  20,  217 
Salt  Hill  Club,  at  Eton,  9 

Sandon,  Lord.     See  '  Lord  Harrowby, 

Scott's  '  Woodstock,'  8 

Scott,  Sir  W.,  Mr.  G.  and,  272 

Seaforth  vicarage,  5 

Sebastopol.  126 

Secret 'Voting,  Bill  to  Establish,  218 

Seeley's  (Prof)  '  Ecce  Homo,'  17S 

Selborne,  Lord.  211,  254 

Selwyn,  Geo.  A.  (Bishop  of  Lichfield), 

8,  12,  14 
Senior,  Mr.  Nassau,  129-130 
Shaitesbury,    Lord,   61,    64,  160,    176, 

191-192,  197,203,  214,230,  251,  253, 

254 
Sherbrooke,  Lord,  17,  182,  210 
Shurey's,  Mrs  ,  at  Eton,  6 
Skinner,  Dr.,  114 
Slavery,  abolition  of,  21,  29,  31,  37 
Slaves,  in  West  Indies,  32-33,  48 ;    in 

America,  154 
Smith,  G.  Barnett,  '  Life  of  the  Right 

Hon.  W.  E.  Gladstone,'  vi 

—  Dr.  Samuel,  16 

—  Sydney,  and  Ireland,  33,  282 

—  Mr.  W.  H.,254 

Sodor  and  Man,  Bishop  of,  16 

Somerset,  Duke  of,  iSo 

South  Lancashire,  173,  175-176,  203- 
204 

Speeches:  at  the  Eton  Society,  10-13  j 
on  Reform  Bill  at  the  Oxford  Union, 
20-21,  183,  184;  maiden,  in  House 
of  Commons,  32-33;  on  the  Irish 
Church  Bill,  36;  on  the  Universities 
Admission  Bill,  37-38;    at  Newark, 


i 


INDEX 


28g 


SPE 

46,64;  Oh  the  East  Indian  planters, 
49  ;  on  China,  62  ;  at  Liverpool,  67  ; 
Civis  Roitzanus  sum,  104-iog;  eiilo9:y 
on  Sir  Robert  Peel,  no;  on  Mr. 
Disraeli's  budget,  116;  first  budget, 
118-121  ;  on  Crimean  War,  12S;  re 
the  Arrow,  134;  on  the  Divorce 
Bill,  i34-'45  ;  on  theworkof  Univer* 
sities,  148 ;  on  the  Paper  Duty  Bill, 
151  ;  on  the  Constitution,  153  ;  on  the 
death  of  the  Prince  Consort,  at  Man- 
chester, 154;  on  America,  at  New- 
Castle,  154-155;  on  the  Franchise  Bill, 
161-163  '•  o"  the  Irish  Church,  164, 
19S-202,  207-210;  on  Ancient  Greece, 
165  ;  at  Manchester  Free  Trade  Hall, 
173-174  ;  at  Liverpool  Amphitheatre, 
'74-175;  on  Reform  Bill,  183-185; 
first,  as  Prime  Minister,  208-210  ;  the 
'  Alabama,' 220-221  ;  on  Home  Rule, 
22 1-223 ;  '  Free  Thought  in  Religion,' 
225  ;  on  Public  Worship  Regulation 
Bill,  234-235,  237 ;  re  Royal  grants, 
259;  at  Memorial  Hall,  267;  on  Af- 
firmation Bill,  268-269;  at  Eton, 
March,  1891,  277 

Spencer,  Lord,  41,  249 

Spirits,  duty  on,  118 

Stanley,  Dean,  5,  217,  223 

Stanley,  Mr  ,  31,  40-41 

—  Lord,  70,  82,  103,  113,  115-  117,  127, 
133,  13S,  140,  141,  144,  151,  153,  i79> 
190,  igi,  195;  retirement  of,  196,  200, 
202,  2ig,  254 

—  Sir  Jolm,  16 

State  in  its  relations  with  the  Church, 

the,  53-59,  65-66 
Succession  duty,  122 
Sugar  duties,  63 
Sumner,  Archbishop,  131-132 


Tait,  Archbishop,  17,  223,  227,  234 

Tamworth,  Sir  R.  Peel  and,  45-46 

Tariff,  the  revised,  67,  71 

'  Tenant-right,'  in  Ulster,  213 

Tennyson,  Mr.  Fred.,  8 

—  Lord,  262,  278 

I'heological  controversy,  Mr.  G.  and, 

238-239,  267-268 
'The  Royal  Supremacy,  &c.,'  letter  to 

Dr.  Blomfield,  90-92 
TheTinies,  59  ;  and  the  Budget  of  i860, 

1 48;  andretirement  of  Mr.  G.,  239-240 
'  Tliree  Acres  and  a  Cow,'  252 
Tiverton,  Lord  Palmerston  at,  176 
Toryism  of  Oxford,  the,  22 
Tory  Reform  Bill,  190-195 
'Tracts  for  the  Times,'  53 
Trade  Unions,  40 
Treatise  on  'Church  Principles,  &c.,' 

61-62 
Treaty  of  Balta  Liman  (1849),  '25  :    of 

Washington,  220 
Trees,  Mr.  G.  and,  263 

19 


YOR 

Trench,  Dr.,  and  Bishop  Wilbcrforce, 

204,  206-207 
Trevelyan,  Sir  George^and  the  anniver- 

saryof  Waterloo,  1S6-1S7;  andCrimes 

Act,  249;  255 
Truro,  Lord  Chancellor,  28 
'  Tufts,'  at  Oxford,  17 
Turkey  and  the  Crimean  War,  125,128; 

and  Bulgaria,  243-245 
Turner,  Dr.  (Bishop  of  Calcutta),  16 

Ulster,  'tenant-right 'in,  213 

Union  at  Oxford,  the,  20-21,  30,  183, 

.«4 
United  States  and  the 'Alabama,'  219- 

221 
Universities  Admission  Bill,  36-38 

Valedictory  address  at  Oxford,  168- 
169 

Van  Espen,  the  canonist,  236 

'  Vatican  Decrees  in  their  Bearing  on 
Civil  Allegiance,'  241-242 

Veysie,  Rev.  Dr.,  16 

Victoria,  Queen,  49,  64  ;  and  Lord  J. 
Russell,  ri4,  144,  17S;  and  Lord 
Derby,  117;  and  Mr.  G.'s  first  Bud- 
get, 122;  speech  from  the  Throne, 
1859,  143  ;  and  Lord  Palmerston,  144, 
147  ;  and  Parliament  of  1S66,  iSo, 
187-18S;  and  Mr.  Disraeli,  196-197, 
202  ;  and  Mr.  G.,  204,  251,  254,  257  ; 
and  Epping  Forest,  249 

Villiers,  Mr.  Charles,  79 

Voting,  Bill  to  establish  Secret,  218 

Walewski,  Count,  114 

Walpole,  Spencer,  8,  159 

War  Budget  in  1853,  125-126 

Waterloo,  Sir  G.  Trevelyan  and  the 
anniversary  of,  1S6-1S7 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  21,  26,  40-42; 
death  of,  118 

Westbury.  Lord  Chancellor,  134 

Whalley.  Mr.,  221 

Whiteside,  Chief  Justice,  163 

Wilberforce,  Rev.  Samuel  (Bishop), 
49-52,  68-69,  7Si  89,  123,  '32,  1.39, 
141,  157-158,  159,  166,  16S-172,  iSo, 
1S6,  192  ;  and  Dr.  Trench,  206-207; 
and  Irish  Church,  200,  204;  and  Mr. 
Gladstone,  205-207,216,  218,223,224- 
225;  death  of,  227;  281-282 

Wilde,  Mr.  Serjeant,  2S-30,  46 

William  IV.,  41-42  ;  death  of,  49 

Wilmslow,  Mr.  G.  and  tutor  at,  16 

Wiseman,  Cardinal,  59 

Wood,  Sir  C  A.,  16 

Wordsworth,  Dr.  Chas.,  16,  21,  24,  48, 
84-85,  115 

Working  classes,  161-162 

York  (Dr.  Magee),  Archbishop  of,  2it 


LONDON  LETTERS. 

London  Letters,  and  Some  Others,  B}'  George  W.  Smalley, 
London  Correspondent  of  the  New  York  Tribune.  Two  vol- 
umes.VoL  L  Personalities — Two  Midlothian  Campaigns.  Vol. 
II,  Notes  on  Social  Life — Notes  on  Parliament — Pageants — 
Miscellanies.     8vo,  Cloth,  Uncut  Edges  and  Gilt  Tops,  $6  00, 

Mr.  Smalley  has  a  keen  eye  for  the  salient  points  of  character  and  in- 
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sions, and  a  wide  acquaintance  with  English  social  life,  its  ways,  and  its 
personalities. — London  Times. 

The  correspondence  touches  upon  multifarious  topics,  and  whatever  it 
touches  it  illuminates  and  adorns.  Nobody,  whose  mind  has  been  in- 
structed by  study  and  observation  and  whose  taste  has  been  formed  on 
sound  models,  can  read  these  letters  without  delight  in  their  vigor  and 
their  delicacy.  .  .  .  Mr.  Smalley's  style  belongs  to  him  and  to  no  one  else. 
It  has  no  mannerisms  to  suggest  and  assist  imitation.  It  is  equally  with- 
abruptness  and  without  prolixity.  It  takes  the  reader  captive,  but  leaves 
him  in  full  possession  of  all  his  faculties.  There  is  no  meretricious  quali- 
ty in  it,  and  no  deceitfulness,  unless  it  be  the  simplicity  whicli  seems  so 
easy  and  is  so  hard. — N.  Y.  Tribune. 

Mr.  Smalley's  letters  to  the  Tribune  during  the  last  twenty  years,  which 
form  the  basis  of  his  present  work,  have  been  notable,  not  only  for  the 
wide  range  of  subjects  and  the  exact  information  they  contain,  but  for 
the  pure  and  vigorous  English  in  which  they  are  written.  The  volumes 
will  be  a  valuable  contribution  to  contemporaneous  biography  and  history. 
— N.  Y.  Mail  and  Express. 

They  give  a  broad,  systematic,  and  intelligent  view  of  public  affairs  in 
England  and  to  some  extent  in  Europe,  as  seen  in  the  life  of  the  men 
principally  active  in  them.  .  .  .  They  are  wonderfully  interesting,  graphic, 
and  rich  in  the  neatest  possible  literary  work. — Independent,  N.  Y. 

Of  the  crisp  vigor,  the  clearness,  and  the  force  of  Mr.  Smalley's  literary 
style  there  is  no  need  to  write;  nor  is  it  necessary  to  dwell  upon  the  felic- 
ity with  which  he  seizes  upon  these  points  in  foreign  affairs  which  are 
likely  to  interest  his  readers  on  this  side  of  the  water.  What  most  en- 
forces itself  on  the  attention  in  this  work  is  the  vast  mass  of  matter  in 
the  letters  that  is  of  such  perennial  interest  and  importance  and  so  wor- 
thy of  perpetuation  in  the  more  permanent  form  that  is  here  accorded  it. 
The  volumes  are  delightful  reading. — Saturday  Evening  Gazette,  Boston. 


Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

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SCOTT'S  JOURNAL. 

The  Journal  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  1825-1832.  From  the  Origi- 
nal Manuscript  of  Abbotsford.  With  Two  Portraits  and  En- 
graved Title-pages.  Two  Volumes.  8vo,  Cloth,  Uncut  Edges 
and  Gilt  Tops,  $7  50.    Popular  Edition,  1  Vol.,  $2  50. 

The  "  Journal "  presents  a  varied  and  vivid  picture  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's 
existence  during  the  years  in  which  he  kept  it.  .  .  .  Those  who  read  the 
"Journal"  will  clearly  understand  wtiat  he  was  as  a  man,  and  such  a  man 
as  he  is  the  more  beloved  the  more  intimately  he  is  known.  He  reveals 
himself  with  perfect  candor  and  completeness  in  his  "Journal,"  and  he 
appears  even  greater  in  its  pages  than  in  other  works  from  his  pen  which 
are  prized  as  English  classics. — London  Times. 

Full  of  interesting  glimpses  into  the  great  author's  mind,  and  reveals  in 
a  striking  manner  the  inextinguishable  buoyancy  with  which  he  encoun- 
tered misfortune,  the  iron  perseverance  with  which  he  set  himself  to  clear 
away  the  mountain  of  debt  with  which  he  found  himself  burdened  when 
his  best  years  had  passed,  the  keen  sense  of  honor  and  duty  which  marked 
even  his  most  private  communings  with  himself,  and  the  gay  humor  which 
characterized  him  whenever  the  clouds  parted  for  a  moment  and  permit- 
ted the  sunshine  to  pass.  ...  It  is  indeed  a  valuable  contribution  to  our 
knowledge  of  Sir  Walter  Scott. — iV.  Y.  Tribune. 

The  manner  in  which  the  "Journal"  has  been  prepared  for  publication 
deserves  hearty  praise.  Mr.  Douglas  is  a  conscientious  and  competent 
editor,  and  he  has  supplied  all  the  notes  which  are  required  for  elucidating 
the  text  without  making  a  parade  of  superfluous  learning.  .  .  .  This  final 
work  by  Sir  Walter  Scott  is  as  instructive  and  welcome  as  any  which  he 
penned. — Athenceum,  London. 

Certainly  all  who  read  these  volumes  will  rise  from  their  perusal  with  a 
deepened  admiration  for  one  of  the  noblest  and  best  of  men. — Fall  Mall 
Gazette,  London. 

A  better  tempered,  less  morbid  diary  never  was  published.  ...  No  ex- 
tracts can  do  justice  to  the  book  as  a  whole — to  the  manly,  cheerful,  ten- 
der spirit  of  the  man. — N.  Y.  Herald. 

This  is  such  a  book  as  the  world  has  not  often  seen.  These  two  im- 
pressive volumes  contain  one  of  the  most  effective  pictures  of  a  really 
strong  man,  painted  as  only  that  man  himself  could  have  painted  it,  which 
the  English  language  contains.  .  .  .  This  book  is  one  of  the  greatest  gifts 
which  our  English  literature  has  ever  received. — Spectator,  LondoD. 


Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

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